Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Hope at last for Borneo’s Sun Bears

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STORY OF THE SUN BEAR KEEPER PART II

Category: captivity, sanctuary | Date: Aug 30 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

 by Wai Pak Ng 

Today, I was carrying out my duties at the centre. After the sun bears had their morning meal, I observe and record the bears’ activities. Sun bear are very active animal. They are curious, energetic and always have thing to do to keep them busy.  After two hours of record, I found out the centre is become quiet except the sound come from the stand fan to keep the floor dry. I noticed most of the bears are lying on their own basket bed, and having their afternoon nap. Yes, the bears do take afternoon nap. No matter they are born in the wild or keep in the cage, they do have this natural behavior.

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 Lets look at the diagram below which I taken from Wong’s research data back in Danum Valley. It shows that the wild sun bears do have their short nap around 10 am in the day time (the little dip at around 10 am) after two hours of feeding peak at round 8 am in the morning. So, we are glad that our sun bears in our centre do keep their natural behaviors.

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Of course, not every bears is going to sleep at the same time every day. There are some bears still want to hang around foraging at the ground, sniffing around, playing on dry branches, and disturbing others who want to rest!  gutuk.jpgI recall back the time when I was a volunteer in my friend’s kindergarten several years ago. The bears are just like the kids; they won’t stop for any seconds, and the only time you can found silence is when they are having nap. That is the  most peaceful moment of the day. No more yelling, no fighting, no crying… nothing. I would say there are a lot of similarity between taking care of the bears and helping out in the kindergarten. For sure, I am glad to see them sleeping peacefully, both the kids and the bears.  disturb.jpg

6 Responses to “STORY OF THE SUN BEAR KEEPER PART II”

TheTeach, Seattle, on 31 Aug 2008

Great photos, Wai Pak. Looks like they get their own steel hammocks. It looks rather austere and uncomfortable, but the bears in the photos appears to be relaxing just fine. The bears are great. I hope the program will continue to grow and expand in its ability to conserve this species. Best Wishes.

Siew Te Wong, on 02 Sep 2008

Hi The Teach,
Believe me that the steel hammock is one of the best thing these sun bears like when they are in captivity. Almost all of them use it immediately when they were first introduced to it. It may look rather “austere and uncomfortable”, but for the sun bears, it make a big different in their sad captive lifes. In my next blog, I will write about how they sleep in the wild.
Wong

Sherri S., on 04 Sep 2008

Hi, Wong! Although I try to read all the posts to this blog immediately, I some how missed this one. I just wanted to thank you for the great pictures and interesting report.

Siew Te Wong, on 04 Sep 2008

You are welcome Sherri. I hope now I am back to school with more simple life (will I ever??) I can have more time to report more stories of sun bears. Thanks for the continuous support!

TheTeach, Seattle, on 08 Sep 2008

That’s great, Wong! I’ll be loooking forward to the posts. School is back in session now and in coming weeks and months, I’ll have the opportunity to introduce the students to the Sun Bear consrvation and your important work. Service in areas of conservation will be a major focus this year. I hope to include your blog as a focus of one of our fund raisers. It won’t be much, but each month we do choose one service cause to center on. During that month, they learn all about that specific cause and some students will donate. At the end of the month, I send a check for what was raised. I’ve chosen several wildlifedirect blogs to feature throughout this school year. Sun Bears will probably be focused on, in early 2009. For now, we are preoccupied with local charity. And Thanksgiving and Christmas bring there own annual service responsibilities. But I’ll definitely try to work “Bornean Sun Bear Conservation” in there somewhere. :) Best Wishes

Siew Te Wong, on 08 Sep 2008

Hi,
Thanks for spreading the words of what we do to help sun bear. Really appreciated that. Any penny raised for our works will be significant to what we are trying to help the current situation. There are a lot to tell people about sun bears especially in our own country.
I just receive an email from Tony Fernandes regarding a fund raising even that we plan to do in coming November call “Bear Necessity”. Tony is among one of the riches man in Malaysia and the owner of Air Asia. He did not know that we have sun bears in Malaysia! We need to strengthen our education work to general public beside the conservation works for sun bear. We need to make this project a success so so so bad so that we will have a better future for everyone the world.

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