The 10th of June 2013 was some night! I entered the forest with our LFP in-house writer Annie Fiorentino, for her first trek every into loris territory. She could not know what a surprise she was going to get!

Searching for our favourite loris super mother Tereh with local wildlife photographers Wawan Tarniwan and Muhammed Taufik and our head tracker Dendi Rustandi, we were lucky to see her ‘exposed’ right at the front of the bamboo…but she was not alone! With her was our roaming male Azka, who we thought was a faithful partner to One Eye…but when a loris is about to enter her brief window of ‘sexy time,’ it was clear that Azka was not in the mood for being faithful!

Azka and Tereh were suprised by us, ‘caught in the act.’ When lorises copulate, the male ‘locks’ into the female, so they were not going anywhere! Clearly in the act when we arrived, it lasted another 8 minutes, before they were rudely interrupted. Another male, seemingly with a collar but no signal (so probably our long lost Guntur!) appeared and pounced on Azka. Issuing a growl, they fell 7 m from the tree into the stream! Tereh looked a bit shocked but did not move. After a few minutes, Azka made his way back to his prize, but he was not going to let another competitor ruin his chances. Immediately he started voraciously licking his venom gland, holding his arm out like a strongman, and rubbing it all over his head (an area that another loris would be most likely to attack). After about another ten minutes, he and Tereh meandered off together through the bamboo, with no sign of Guntur.

What a birthday present for me! I have written the story of Tereh and her imaginary baby Bunga, but hopefully in about six months, little Bunga will be born and be part of the safe and thriving population here in Cipaganti.