Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Hope at last for Borneo’s Sun Bears

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Researcher shines light on ‘forgotten species’

Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education | Date: Sep 23 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

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Story by Hannah J. Ryan | September 23, 2009
Montana Kaimin

http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/outdoors/outdoors_article/researcher_shines_light_on_forgotten_species/3970

Malayan sun bears don’t have it as easy as Monte. In Southeast Asia, the world’s smallest bear species faces poaching, deforestation and a host of other woes, according to Siew Te Wong, a graduate in wildlife biology from the University of Montana.

On Tuesday evening, Wong, founder and CEO of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, presented his findings from nearly two decades of research on the tiny and fledgling bear populace.

“I often call the sun bear a forgotten species,” Wong said.

Wong said the bears face threats from hunters because bear meat is high on the menu in the wild meat markets of China. Their body parts are common in traditional ceremonies and costumes and are used for medicinal purposes.

Trapping the cubs is a common practice due to their popularity as pets when young.

“The caged bear is something I cannot live with,” Wong said.

Poaching in Southeast Asia is creating what Wong calls the “empty effect,” leaving the rainforest and clear-cut areas devoid of mammals and birds and replacing them with palm oil plantations and silence.

Above all else, Wong said the largest problem facing the bears is human encroachment.

“Habitat loss is the     biggest, biggest, biggest threat to the sun bear,” Wong said.  “Southeast Asia will loose 75 percent of its native forests by 2100.”

Wong began to study the Malayan sun bears in 1998 in a rainforest of Malaysian Borneo for his master’s thesis.  In February 1999, after a year of preliminary research, Wong and his team spent four months in the humid forest building and setting a variety of traps in an attempt to detain live sun bears for their studies.

Wong describes this stage of his research as “the goofy stuff you see on the Discovery Channel.”

Elephants, who dislike foreign objects in their forest, would crush his traps made from oil drums as if they were soda cans, he said.

While sun bears are small in size, they are strong, Wong said, flashing photographs of shredded tin roof traps and metal oil drums with basketball-sized holes punctured in the sides.

But the 100-pound mammal did have a weakness that Wong discovered after many setbacks.

“Believe me, I tried everything, but after trial and error, chicken guts worked best,” to tempt the finicky bears, Wong said.

Wong said that he and his team caught their first sun bear in June 1999. Wong and his relieved team sedated the bear, took its bodily measurements, drew blood samples and fitted the little guy with a radio collar.

In an effort to keep the bear from disappearing, Wong founded the bear conservation center. The center provides facilities for rescuing and housing captive bears, increasing public awareness locally and internationally about this mammal and rehabilitating young bears for release back into the wild.

Even with Wong’s years of work to improve the bears’ status, they still face an uphill battle.

“There’s a lot of work to do right now,” Wong said.

For more information on the Malayan sun bear, Wong’s research and the BSBCC, visit http://www.sunbears.wildlifedirect.org.

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9 Responses to “Researcher shines light on ‘forgotten species’”

Brenton H, on 24 Sep 2009

Always good to read about your work, Siew Te.

Siew Te Wong, on 24 Sep 2009

Thanks Brenton for being a big fan of our works! Hope to hear more from you.
Wong

roopa, on 24 Sep 2009

Good to hear of your work. From news articles of bile extraction, bear paws and other body parts dale, it has come as a breather that there are some like you who are protecting them too. Thanks
BUt you have a big job of increasing awareness on this topic.You can read my blog the topic on international trade in wildlife

roopa, on 24 Sep 2009

In India people trap bear cubs to earn a living off them by making them dance on roads. THey use hot iron rods to pierce a big hole in their nasal bone and put thick nylon ropes through it. As they pull the rope the bear out of pain stands up and hops on its hind legs —”the bear dance”. It sometimes results in blindness or nasal discharge etc. THe WIldlife SOS is doing agood job of tracking the trappers and kidnappers and rehabiitaing the tribals who carry out this trade. We have adopted a bear cub ourselves for an year.

Emily Kerr, on 24 Sep 2009

Mr. Wong,

My name is Emily Kerr, I’m a freshman at the University of Montana, and on September 22nd I attended your presentation on Sun Bears for the Student Chapter of the Wildlife Society. I’m curious to know what degrees and programs you pursued during you undergraduate education, and what you are currently doing in order to be where you are today. I was amazed and very intrigued by the field research you did in Borneo, as I would love to do something similar to that someday. However, I’m more into the reptilian species, so I’m wondering if you’ve heard of any news in the field research world that corresponds with reptiles and amphibians. Also, I would love to know the website for a program I could donate to to help preserve the forests of Borneo. Again, I loved your presentation, and would appreciate any information you could provide me with. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Siew Te Wong, on 25 Sep 2009

Dear Roopa,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, there are many sad and unfortunate bears around the world, India, Malaysia, and many other countries. We hope we could do the bear problem here. I am aware of the Indian wildlife conservation issues. SOS Wildlife and many NGOs have done a good job for the rescued animals and also the karendra who keep the dancing bears.
Thank you for offering me to read your blog. There are many valuable information there.
Thank you

Kindest regards,
Wong

Siew Te Wong, on 25 Sep 2009

Hi Emily,
Thank you for listening to my talk on Tuesday. I am glad that the talk is informative, and more importantly, give you some insights of what you can do in your career.

OK, get back to your questions:

I’m curious to know what degrees and programs you pursued during you undergraduate education:

I am enrolled in the Wildlife Biology program, College of Forestry and Conservation, U of M, for all of my degrees: BSc (1994), MSc (1998), and PhD (2003).

What you are currently doing in order to be where you are today:

Actually the question should be “what have you done in the past….”. I think two important elements that anyone should have in order to do a good job: interest and passion. I have very strong interest of what I am doing for a long time and very strong passion about wildlife research, conservation and protection. Please read:
sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/about-siew-te-wong/
wongsiewte.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html

So it did not happen overnight. At the end, the more I do it, the more my interest and passion into it. However, it is not easy I have to say. Sometime what I am dealing with is so sad, frustration, and helpless. However, I believe that it is still the right thing to do and we should try our best to do it.

I was amazed and very intrigued by the field research you did in Borneo, as I would love to do that someday. However, I’m more into the reptilian species, so I’m wondering if you’ve heard of any news in the field research world that corresponds with reptiles and amphibians.

There are a lot of research and conservation project going on throughout the world with reptiles and amphibians. In term of what research project to tell you, I have to know which location, regions or country you are interested in. In U of Montana, few of our faculty members do have various projects working with reptile and amphibians. You can easily look them up on internet.

Also, I would love to know the website for a program I could donate to to help preserve the forests of Borneo.

If you would like to help sun bears, you can make donation to our project at sunbears.wildlifedirect.org. Our ultimate goals are also working hard to preserve the rainforest of Borneo, which is home to all the Bornean wildlife.

If you like to specifically make donation to program that preserve Borneo’s forest, LEAP is a good choice: http://www.leapspiral.org/content/support_leap.php. Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre is one of the project under the big umbrella of LEAP. Please check them up as well.

Again, I loved your presentation, and would appreciate any information you could provide me with. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

You are most welcome. I am working in campus all the time, if you like to meet up and talk about your question, I will be more than happy to meet up.

Kindest regards,
Wong

Pirjo,Finland, on 26 Sep 2009

Thank you again so much for a great blog entry. This blog has really opened my eyes to the many overwhelming conservation issues you are having to face in the Asian countries. Your work is so valuable and rest assured that you are making a real difference having this blog and informing us of these extremely important things.

Siew Te Wong, on 27 Sep 2009

Thanks Pirjo. I hope many people will gain as much information as possible from this blog. These informations are important to reach the other site of the world as they are related to all of us. Please help us spread the words about the plight of the sun bears.
Many thanks.

Wong

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