Aye aye, Capy... er, cavy

Aye ayes.

Hideously ugly and decidedly creepy little critters.

I was happily trawling through Zooborns the other day, looking at some of the new and wonderful what-nots born into zoos in the past few months, when I came across these:



No, those aren't aye ayes. Those are cavies. Essentially giant rodents, cavies are like rabbits which forgot they weren't kangaroos. Yes, I know rabbits aren't rodents, but rather lagamorphs. That doesn't seem to stop the cavies from looking like rabbits which forgot they weren't kangaroos. The fact that they are neither lagamorphs nor macropodidae is irrelevent.

Anyway, I was looking at this picture, thinking: "My, that's one of the oddest looking critters I've seen in quite a while". And then I scrolled down to the next animal.

You know how, sometimes, you see something so startling that you can't help letting lose a little scream? Yeah.

Aye ayes are the kind of animal which always startle. Even if you know what to expect, you suddenly see a picture of an aye aye and you feel like you've just stumbled into a planet where demonic little goblins exist, and you've just bumped into one.

I can see why, in their native Madagascar, aye ayes are often killed on sight. If I had a weapon and was used to using it, I possibly would have damaged my computer.

I understand they're perfectly nice members of the lemur family. That doesn't make them any less startling.

See for yourself.