Thursday, January 31, 2008

A is for Aye - Aye Commission




I was asked recently to complete a very interesting commission. It is tough to make this guy look cute but I think I pulled it off. The commission was for the customers girlfriend - it is her 2nd favorite animal. Good for her as most people think the Aye- Aye is a bit evil.


The Aye-aye is the world's largest nocturnal primate and lives on the east coast of Madagascar. Its natural habitat is rainforest, but many live in cultivated areas due to deforesting.

The original meaning of the name Aye-aye has been lost, as the originating language is extinct. There is a hypothesis that the word "aye aye" signifies simply a cry of alarm to alert others to the presence of this animal, which many Malagasy consider an ill omen. The Aye-aye is an endangered species not only because its habitat is being destroyed, but also due to native superstition. Besides being a general nuisance in villages, ancient Malagasy legend said that the Aye-aye was a symbol of death. Researchers in Madagascar report remarkable fearlessness in the Aye-aye; some accounts tell of individual animals strolling nonchalantly in village streets or even walking right up to naturalists in the rainforest and sniffing their shoes. Therefore, it is no wonder that displaced animals often raid coconut plantations or steal food in villages. The Aye-aye is often viewed as a harbinger of evil and killed on sight. Others believe that should one point its long middle finger at you, you were condemned to death. Some say the appearance of an Aye-aye in a village predicts the death of a villager, and the only way to prevent this is to kill the Aye-aye. The Sakalava people go so far as to claim Aye-ayes sneak into houses through the thatched roofs and murder the sleeping occupants by using their middle finger to puncture the victim's aorta.




1 comments:

Wendy said...

and you DID it...you made her look cute. maybe the real meaning of aye-aye is yoda.