We have observed Tahini since April 2012, when she was only a tiny dot! A few weeks old. Below are our first pictures of her from the wild…

Tahini got her name during a naming competition at Bristol Zoo! She was so confident and friendly. We saw her munch gum, catch birds, and play with the neighbouring lorises Azka and Guntur, have a love affair with Yogi, and bond with mama Tereh.

Last week the team wrote this post about her dispersal from her native range. It was time to leave home!

Meanwhile in Cipaganti, Tahini has had us running around in a blind panic since her signal recently disappeared from her usual stomping grounds near Mommy Tereh. After several days of playing the “We no find Tahini” game, Denise and Adin set out on an epic quest across the land in search of the lost loris. They succeeded and found Tahini on extended vacation in an area of forest near Kepala Desa’s (village chief) office on the other side of the village! Playboy Azka led his observers on a wild goose chase around the forest before finally settling on a favourite hotspot for gum trees. Here he hung upside down gnawing away happily for nearly two hours, stopping periodically to survey his surroundings. Another loris who spent a great deal of time hanging out this week was Charlie. She was seen catching moths for over an hour whilst suspended by her feet from a bamboo branch. Lorises are such incredible acrobats!

Yesterday, 12 Nov, We received this news:

• I have some bad news to share. Dendi and Adin went on rounds tonight and when they went to find Tahini they picked up her signal in exactly the same place as the sleep sight of this morning. The went to look for the signal and found her collar and her skull. Tahini is dead. They could not find any of her body. They brought the skull back- it had no flesh, just covered in mud. They found it near the river and Dendi thinks that she might have fallen in the river and washed down-stream. He was quite affected and couldn’t find the words.

  We are going tomorrow morning to check if we can find anymore of her remains and we are going to go to Kepala Desa (village chief) to talk about the loris bridges. I really want them to be made. I’m sorry to have to share this really sad news. We are all really sad.

  We will soon launch 2014 adoptions. Our newest young lady Lucu will represent our young lorises. Clearly learning about dispersal is so important. Funds from these adoptions will go to make Loris Bridges, so if our babies need to disperse through the village, they have the best chance of being safe.