A long-fingered lemur picks its nose and eats slimy goods.
Kali, an aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) at the Duke Lemur Center, was the first of her species to be observed nose-picking. The fact that aye-ayes do it with their long middle fingers makes it even more impressive. Anne-Claire Fabre is the Curator of mammals at the Natural History Bern Museum. The findings were reported in the journal.
Fabre caught Kali trying to get gold. She and her team searched the literature for other examples of primate nose-pickers and found that at least twelve species are guilty of the habit. Chimpanzees, gorilla, capuchin monkeys, and humans are included. Most teens and adults admit to the habit of nose-picking privately, according to surveys.
There has to be a champion nose-picker. The middle fingers of these lemurs are very long. Adam Hartstone-Rose is a Biologist at North Carolina State University who was not involved in the new research. At seven raps per second, they tap on logs and listen to the sound of holes in the wood. They mentally map the tunnels and bite holes at the intersection to pull out food. The aye-aye's middle finger is a ball-and-socket joint, which allows it to turn almost like a human shoulder, according to Hartstone-Rose.
No firm science supports the idea that nose-picking has an immune advantage. Hartstone-Rose said that primate are pickers. They pull parasites off each other, pick at scabs, and generally just use their dexterity to groom themselves and others.
According to Hartstone-Rose, the finger evolved to do this amazing fishing behavior in logs because of it's sensitivity.
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