{"id":22489,"date":"2022-11-14T15:12:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=70816"},"modified":"2022-11-14T15:34:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T14:34:32","slug":"aye-aye-uses-its-long-middle-finger-to-pick-its-nose","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/aye-aye-uses-its-long-middle-finger-to-pick-its-nose\/","title":{"rendered":"Aye-aye uses its long middle finger to pick its nose"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Stuart Blackman\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 14 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Aye-ayes are surely most famous for the extraordinary, elongated, bony middle fingers that they use to winkle grubs from wood. But that\u2019s not all these nocturnal lemurs<\/a> use them for, according to new research \u2013 they also double as the perfect nose-picking tools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working on the evolution of grasping ability in primates, so I was studying lots of species eating and moving,\u201d says Anne-Claire Fabre of Bern Natural History Museum, Switzerland<\/a>. \u201cI was recording this aye-aye eating and all of a sudden it stopped and started picking its nose and eating its snot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The behaviour was all the more startling for the fact that the aye-aye was capable of pushing the entire finger \u2013 all 10cm of it \u2013 into its nostrils, a feat that might make even human children\u2019s eyes water.<\/p>\n

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Anne-Claire Fabre and an aye-aye called Merlin. \u00a9 David Haring<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was pretty impressive,\u201d says Fabre. \u201cI started wondering where exactly the finger was going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scans of the aye-aye\u2019s skulls revealed that the finger passes all the way through the nasal cavity and down into the throat.<\/p>\n

Her research, published in the Journal of Zoology<\/em><\/a>, also documents evidence of nine other primate species picking and eating their nasal mucous, which she found by trawling through online videos.<\/p>\n

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The challenge now is to work out why they do it. One possible answer is: because they can. \u201cThe aye-aye\u2019s finger is shaped like it is because of its specialised feeding behaviour,\u201d says Fabre. \u201cIt puts it in its nose because it fits in its nose.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also possible that rhinotillexis \u2013 to give it its technical name \u2013 has a biological function. Fabre doubts the mucous, being 95 per cent water, provides much in the way of nutritional benefit. She is intrigued by the idea that it plays a role in priming the immune system via the ingestion of microbes trapped in the mucous. There is also some evidence that people who pick their nose require fewer dental cavities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a nose-picking specialist,\u201d says Fabre. \u201cBut in the future it would be really fun to look at the precise composition of nasal mucous.\u201d<\/p>\n

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