In the last few days we have been receiving signals from Tor's tag - surprising us as we last heard from him just north of the Congo Rainforest in March! These new signals show he made it to Morocco but unfortunately it does look like, despite successfully completing the crossing of the Sahara desert, he has since died there. This shows that tag failure was responsible for his initial silences but unfortunately it looks like the desert crossing was too much for him and he didn't have the reserves to continue onwards. 

Tor has once again gone silent. The last signal received was on 12 March, just after he moved north to Central African Republic. Before that there was a silence of 3 months. It could be that the tag is not transmitting properly so we will have to wait and see whether he receive any further locations in the future. 

We’re delighted to write this blog today as, after a silence of almost 3 months, Tor’s tag has sent new transmissions. The signals, received on 3 March, are the first since the beginning of December and reveal that he is now in the Central African Republic. Perhaps there is still hope that Chance may reappear too?

We still have yet to hear news from either Chance or Tor, who had been in a similar area of dense cover close to the Gabon/Congo border, when their tags last transmitted. 

If their respective batteries have not been receiving enough solar charge to power them over a long period of time there is a possibility that the battery may degrade and not be able to power up again. However, if they have been receiving some small charge during this time, though not enough to send a transmission, then once exposed to enough light, transmissions should start back up again. We continue to hope that like David, who went over 6 weeks without a tag transmission but recently re-emerged, Chance and Tor may reappear if and when they move northwards. 

We still haven’t heard from Tor since his tag transmitted on 4 December. As that signal carried no diagnostic data we were unable to check his body temperature or the state of the tag’s battery.