Captive sun bears series I: Because they are cute!
Category: captivity, poaching | Date: Jun 09 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong
Sorry for the long silent. Life in the field is surly hectic with challenges but too few people to help up.
To get the momentum of this blog start again, I reposting a series of stories about captive sun bears from my original blog
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Its all started here: sun bear cubs are cute, they are so cute and adorable, way from any body’s imagination. If you think puppies are cute or kittens are cute or baby orangutans are cute or human babies are cute, think again after you see a sun bear cub!
And also because sun bears are the smallest bears in the world and so cute, they make a perfect pet (well, I do not think so). This is where it all started: Sun bear cubs are being captured and sell as pets after poachers killed their mother for profit. Bear meat, paws, claws, canines, gallbladder, bear hide, you name it, all have a price tag and people willing to pay good money for bear products.
Back in 2000, a friend who visited me in Danum where I did my first sun bear ecology study told me that he saw some one trying to sell a small sun bear cub at Gaya Street Pasar Tamu, Kota Kinabalu’s famous Sunday market, just few days ago. The cub was priced at few hundred ringgit. Beside this poor cub was her mother, chopped into pieces, sell for meat. I was in complete stunned and don’t know what to say.
Of each of the cute sun bear we see in captivity, there is a heartbreaking story to tell that we do not see. Yes, they are so cute. But no, they are so sad…
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20 Responses to “Captive sun bears series I: Because they are cute!”
Paula, on 10 Jun 2008
Oh My god they are adorable. The appeal is irresistable. Thank you for this insight Wong.
sheryl, washington dc, on 10 Jun 2008
You’re absolutely right, Wong, they are cuter than anything. Do you know who’s buying the bear bladders? It seems almost every bear species is now being farmed or poached for their bladders.
Thanks for the great pictures and information.
s.
Rose, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Wong. Everytime i read your blog entry and your passion in your conservation work encourage me to keep up with my work here as well. Thank you so much for your sharing and information that really inspire me. Now i become fan of your blog.:)
When i see that cub that you feed, it reminds me of a few sun bears in Tumbina. Keep up your brilliant and great work Wong. Hope can make a visit to Danum in future. All the best to you!
Rose
GP-CON Bintulu
Wanda, Atlanta, on 10 Jun 2008
It’s as bad as the gorillas - how do you educate all these people that this is OLD stuff and these gall bladders, etc. are all just a bunch of crap like “old wives tales” - they “had a place in history” but we must move on……it goes on and on in every country, the whaling because of ancestry and the seals, and it all affects the beautiful and the cute and the lives of such treasured animal wildlife, sad, very sad to me!
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Paula,
Yes, they are adorable. You now only got to see the photo and not the real thing. Wait until you have the chance to see one then you will start wonder why the heck in the world people do not want to help this bear. The answer lie on there are so few people working with them and most people don’t know much about them. This is why I need to set up BSBCC to do more, to do all and everything to raise awareness. I have to set up BSBCC in order to do more conservation work.
Wong
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Sheryl,
Many people are buying bear gallbladder. Beside the Chinese who has use bear gall for thousand of years as a very valuable medicine, the local communities in South East Asia, people from East Asia (Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese) use bear ball to some extant. So bear bill is not just Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is a Traditional Asian Medicine.
Wong
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Rose,
Thanks for being a fan. Really appreciate that. I am happy that my passion in wildlife conservation can inspire your work as well. Hope you too keep up your good work. Remember, conservation is not a job. It is a mission that one wish to achieve in life. Only you know by your heart how much you have achieve at the end of the day.
sheryl, washington dc, on 10 Jun 2008
Thanks for the prompt answer, Wong. I’m a member of Animals Asia Foundation and they’re opening a new sanctuary for moon bears in Viet Nam, so I suspected the use of bear bile was more widespread than China. Perhaps because of population size they’re considered the leading user?
Wanda, the thing about bear bile is that it actually works. You can read more about the medicinal effects of ursadeoxycholic acid on the AAF Web site: http://www.animalsasia.org/index.php?module=2&menupos=7&lg=en The good news is that there are synthetics that work just as well as UDCA but it’s hard to break thousands of years of tradition. But we’re trying.
s.
Christine C., on 10 Jun 2008
hi Wong — this is in reponse to your question in your “About Me” blog a few weeks ago. The wildlife refuge I spoke of is in a part of rural Maryland called Catoctin…it is privately owned and run by a family and supported by many volunteers.
Here is the website: http://www.cwpzoo.com/
They have indeed bred sunbears successfully (well, at least one that I know of). And you are right, they are too cute, especially the cubs. They have also bred jaguars (including a black cub!) and Siberian White Tigers as well…I do not think they do artificial insemination there, I believe it is “all natural” lol! And boy, I have been there when the sunbears are mating…wow, that is some scary noise they make! The Refuge/Zoo is pretty wonderful…they basically rescue rare animals from bad zoos, road side animal parks, etc…a few years ago, somewhere in MD or VA, these people had a house full of snakes, spiders, scorpions, you name it. Though many of the animals had to be euthanized because of the conditions they were living in…Catoctin actually rescued quite a few and added them to a reptile and poisionous creature exhibit they have. Additionally, I have heard they were getting prepared to open up a multi-acre African-type veldt (they have succesfully bred lions too), when some horrid zoo went under somewhere…they put their Veldt plans on hold and rescued a ton of animals, including I think, some buffalo, zebras, kangaroos…many of the animals, because of the conditions at this bad zoo, are basically “unshowable” because of their bad temperments (who can blame them), but Catoctin has dedicated an off-trail portion of their facility to the care and well being of these animals, even though the public will never see them. Though the story in and of itself is very sad, it is nice to know that these animals are now being well cared for by really compassionate individuals.
Nancy, on 10 Jun 2008
They are very cute, and so is the researcher/caretaker!;-) Thanks for having such a big heart and standing up for the sun bears.
Annie, on 10 Jun 2008
Very cute bear……I hate to hear that happened to its mother……..just awful…..people are terrible………just using and abusing the animals…..thank you for what you do!
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Wanda,
Sheryl is right. Bear bile works and both the very rich people from Japan, Korea, China, etc., to the very poor villagers in Southeast Asian know that it works to cure many illnesses. These are the highly sough items that can save some family members live, if they ever needed it one day. Like other animal produces use in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine or TAM Traditional Asian Medicine), bear bile has been use for a long time. It is a very difficult situation to stop the use of this produce. Maybe in civilize world low enforcement is one way, but in really rural area or non civilize places, law enforcement virtually non-existence. Is complicated. As conservationist and biologist, we need to do our part to educate people and secure remaining population in the wild. This is what we should do.
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Sheryl,
You are right, the use and the demand of bear bile is most popular in China due to the population size, history, and now the economic power to consume such commodity. Thanks for the link about UDCA. I am sure other readers found it very interesting.
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Hi Christine,
Thanks for the information about Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo. They sure do a lot of good works to help sun bear. I am not sure the AZA Bear TAG know about the birth of the baby sun bear. I am sure they find the information valuable. So far only San Diego Zoo has success breeding of sun bears in the past few years. Both of the parent actually came from Sabah where I am working now.
Siew Te Wong, on 10 Jun 2008
Thanks Nancy and Annie,
Thanks for your complement (of course including the part that saying I am cute too J!) I would not take all the credit because there are a lot of people, funders, friends, colleagues, family and others who support all of my works over the past many years. The journey of helping sun bears is still long and I see the setting up BSBCC is an urgent need in order for me to do more. So far no NGO or any government body works specifically for sun bear like other more charismatic species in SE Asia. I really hope I can do more and help more. Supports from all of you in any which way is crucial to make all of these happen!
Christine C., on 11 Jun 2008
Wong — happy to have passed on the information about Catoctin…Eostair was born in 2005 and I believe has two older sisters…so I don’t think she is the only sun bear to have been born there.
Wanda, Atlanta, on 12 Jun 2008
Thanks to all for info and web sites - I will read but 20 years of a bear lying down being drained two and three times a day of its bile is just hard for me to take - even if it saves lives of others — my God there has to be a more humane way to get it - there just has to be - even Chimps used in research could sit upright!
cassie 14, on 13 Jun 2008
i think the bears are cute and should not be sold for pets and i will do any thing to help to save them …..
Siew Te Wong, on 14 Jun 2008
I agree with you Cassie. I am doing my best to save them believe me. This is why I am setting up the BSBCC, to rescue these poor captive bears. The project so far reveive no financial support from the government so I need to fund raise all teh money it needs to build it. You can read more about BSBCC on earlier post. We need your helps.
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