WILD ANIMALS OF AFRICA

AS you probably know, there is, off the east coast of South Africa, a large island called Madagascar. Half the Wild Animals on this island belong to a group known as lemurs.

The lemurs are an interesting Wild Folk. They are supposed to be distant relatives of the monkeys, because they are somewhat like the monkeys. But the lemurs are different in many ways even among themselves. Some of them have a tail, while others do not. Some of them go about during the night, while others are seen only during the day. Some live mostly on the ground, while others spend most of their time in trees. Some are noisy, while others make hardly a sound. No lemur is large.

The largest of the lemurs on Madagascar is Indri, who is about two feet long. Sometimes the natives call him "babakoto," which means "little old man." He wears a black and white suit, and has only a mere stump of a tail. There are usually four or five in his family. They go about only during the day, and they are strict vegetarians.

The smallest of the lemurs is Dwarfy the Mouse Lemur. His body is only four inches long, but his tail adds another six inches. Sometimes he is called the Madagascar rat. He lives in the tops of the tallest trees and on the smallest branches. His home is a Snug Little Nest which he builds of twigs, dried leaves, and such things, in the top of a tree, and which he lines with hair. Here he raises his family, and also sleeps during the day. For, you see, Dwarfy the Lemur goes about only during the night. He has large, round eyes and can see even the smallest things on the darkest night. He has black rings around his eyes as if he were wearing glasses. Do you suppose that is why he can see so well in the dark?

Now, although Dwarfy is mostly a vegetarian, he also eats insects. He prowls about in the darkness on the springy limbs of trees stalking moths and beetles that, like himself, are abroad only during the night. One would think that it would be difficult to pounce upon them on a springy limb, but Dwarfy knows how to manage it.

Dwarfy the Lemur eats and eats and grows fatter and fatter during the cool, wet season. His coat gets sleek, and the base of his tail is swollen with fat. Then when the hot, dry season arrives, what do you suppose Dwarfy does? Well, sir, he curls up and goes to sleep and waits for cool weather to come back. When he awakens, his fat is mostly gone and his swollen tail has shrunk back to normal again. Perhaps that is his way of going on a reducing diet.

Then there is Ringtail the Lemur, who is sometimes called "the cat lemur" because he makes such a nice pet. He is another vegetarian, but he will also eat insects, eggs, young birds, and such things.

Ringtail is a noisy fellow. He lives with some of his friends among the rocks and cliffs where there are but a few dwarfed trees. His hands and feet have tough palms that are just right for walking on wet slippery rocks. When he is in a hurry, he jumps as a kangaroo does. You are likely to see him only morning or evening, for he sleeps during the night and middle of the day with his bushy tail curled around him.

We must not leave out Simpona the Diademed Sifaka, for he might feel slighted. He is a near relative of Indri's; but he has a long tail, whereas Indri has only a stump.

Simpona likes to get out with six or eight of his friends early in the morning before the day is hot and go leaping from tree to tree in search of his Favorite Food. When the Laughing Yellow Sun is up, he likes to sit close against a tree on a level limb and let the Cheerful Little Sunbeams warm his coat; but when the day is hot, he hunts a place under a shady bough where he can hide and rest.

Simpona seldom comes down to the ground. That is because it is hard for him to walk with his short arms. He finds it easier to jump than walk.

When he was tiny he rode on his Loving Mother's back with his hands clinging to her sides.

Simpona's Favorite Food is fruit, leaves, flowers, and other vegetation. He peels the fruit with his lower teeth, which stick out so they are handy for that. His home is near the coast, where there is rain almost every day; but he never complains about the weather. In fact, he never has much to say about anything.

OF all the Wild Animals that lived on Madagascar, Aye-Aye was the strangest. Even his name was strange, for it was pronounced as if it were spelled Eye-Eye. Naturalists had a hard time making up their minds who his relatives were.

You see, Aye-Aye had front teeth like Paddletail the Beaver's, a bushy tail and large ears like Reddy Fox's, a face and body like Hunting Cat's, hands like a monkey's, and he climbed trees like a squirrel. But his habits were like the lemur's. It was finally decided that he was most like the lemurs, but did not belong in their group. So, although he is known as a lemur, he was put in a special class all by himself.

Aye-Aye had the most unusual feet of all Wild Creatures. His big toe had a flat nail as the monkeys have, and like theirs it was used as a thumb; but the other toes on his feet, and also his fingers, had sharply pointed claws. No two of his fingers were alike. The finger next to his thumb looked as if it had forgotten to grow, while the next finger looked as if it had forgotten to stop growing. It was long and strong and slender, like a piece of wire, and it is supposed that he used it for gouging all kinds of bugs and worms out of holes in trees.

Aye-Aye lived with Mrs. Aye-Aye in Bamboo Forest. They had built a Snug Nest about two feet across, and there they slept all day. The Snug Nest was made of twigs and dried leaves, and was hidden among the dense leaves high above the ground. There was a hole in its side, which they used for a door.

Aye-Aye and Mrs. Aye-Aye usually went out together to prowl during the night. They liked wild sugar cane and oranges and other fruit and the pith from bamboo. They scratched away the bark on trees with their sharp claws to expose crawly insects that were hiding beneath. Sometimes they first tapped the bark with their hands and then listened closely to see if they could hear anything stirring.

One evening the Aye-Ayes left their Snug Nest and started out in search of Favorite Food as usual. Soon it was dark, and the Bamboo Forest smelled dank because of the rain that had fallen during the day. There were weird night cries and the piping of frogs, and far, far away there was the faint barking of dogs in a Native Village.

Now there was in the Native Village a Black Trapper by the name of Ishti. Ishti made clever traps, which he took to the forest and set for Wild Creatures. He hoped that he might catch Fitili-ki the Weasel Lemur and have a feast. Fitili-ki spent his nights roaming through the forest, jumping long distances from tree to tree, and eating nothing but tender leaves. Ishti left his cunning traps in certain places where he thought Fitili-ki might come to the ground, and placed some of his Favorite Food inside. Some of them he fastened on high limbs and covered them with boughs. If Fitili-ki did not find them, thought Ishti, perhaps some other Wild Creature would.

So it happened that as Aye-Aye was passing through the forest he thought he smelled the odor of Favorite Food coming from a dark spot beneath some boughs. Aye-Aye went under the boughs to investigate. Suddenly there was a faint click as a little door dropped down behind him.

Aye-Aye ate some of the tempting bait and then decided he would leave. But search as he did, he could not find a way out.

"Now, that is strange," he said to himself. "I thought I came in right here." But the opening certainly was not there.

Aye-Aye became very excited. "Haihay, haihay! " he called to Mrs. Aye-Aye.

"What is the matter?" she asked, as she came sailing across from a tree nearby.

"I can't get out of here," replied Aye-Aye.

Mrs. Aye-Aye went round and round, searching here and there among the boughs that covered the clever trap. But there was not an opening to be found.

At last Mrs. Aye-Aye sat sadly on the limb and looked toward the east. The first faint rays of light suggested that a new day would soon be there. She simply could not let the Laughing Yellow Sun catch her away from home.

"Oh, dear," she wailed, "I guess I must go home alone."

Off she went toward the Snug Nest in Bamboo Forest, and there she curled up and went to sleep alone.

Mrs. Aye-Aye was sleeping soundly when suddenly she was awakened by a scratching as if someone were climbing up to her Snug Nest. At first she thought she might be dreaming of Lurking Enemies. But no, there was the light shining in through her doorway, and she blinked as it reached her eyes.

Closer and closer came the scratching. She wondered if it really might be a Lurking Enemy, and her heart beat fast. Then the doorway was darkened by someone coming in, and she could see better. There stood Aye-Aye, tired and hot, and hardly looking like himself. His fur was smeared with grease, and sticking to it were bits of dead leaves and grass seed and other trash.

You see, Ishti the Black Trapper was superstitious. He believed that Aye-Aye had some kind of unusual power and was able to kill anyone who tried to catch or hurt him. So, when he had accidentally caught Aye-Aye in his cunning trap, he was afraid. He had smeared fat on him, thinking that Aye-Aye would like that and would forgive him. Then Ishti had turned Aye-Aye loose.