DENVER ZOO’S “OMEN OF EVIL” EMERGES

Tonks, the baby aye-aye whose introduction to the world began with the words “ugly” and “omen of evil,” is ready for her public debut. The young lemur has started to emerge from her nest box at the Denver Zoo.

Tonks was born Aug. 8 to the zoo’s two other ayeayes, Bellatrix and Smeagol, and conservationists and journalists across the country heralded her birth as an important addition to the endangered species. Only 24 aye-ayes live in seven U.S. zoos, and the wild population in native Madagascar is difficult to estimate, according to the Duke Lemur Center. — Elise Schmelzer,

Courtesy of the Denver Zoo Tonks the aye-aye. In Madagascar, the aye-aye is considered bad luck, and some people kill them on site.