Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Text and photos by Chiew Lin May

On 16^th March 2013, Bongkud had integrated with Natalie. Natalie is famous with “The Group Leader”. Natalie was one of our rescued sun bear by Sabah Wildlife Department that sent to Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC). Natalie is a Latin girl name which is to remember her arrival two days before Christmas.

Once the gate was opened, an active and playful sun bear, Natalie was the first who went to approached and sniffed to Bongkud. Through the Bongkud expression, she was so happy to get a new playmate again although Natalie’s body size was bigger than her. Bongkud try her best fought back and showed she has strength too. All of the strong claws and canines were showed up during the play fight. None of the sun bears showed any aggression and frustrated behaviour. Both of them spend a whole day for chasing, rolling, mock fight and climbing around together. It was a great integration!! They integrated well and seem to begin to understand and trusted each other better. Natalie shows the most dominance.

Natalie, the group leader (front) and Bongkud (behind) play fight like wrestler.

Bongkud (behind) was press by Natalie. Both of the sun bears want to show who are more stronger.

Natalie (right) started to accept Bongkud (left)’s presence. Both of them play happily.

A great new playmate!! Bongkud (left) was help groom Natalie (right) body.

On that day, ginger leaf was given as enrichment for all the sun bears. Natalie and Bongkud played with the ginger leaf together without fighting. After they were tired playing, both of the sun bears took a quick rest on ground floor which is embedded with dried leaves. So adorable!!

No aggression happened between Natalie and Bongkud when distribute the ginger leaves (enrichment).

Both even share the ginger leaf together !

After a long play fight, Bongkud and Natalie was rest by cover ginger leaf on their eyes. A great integration!!

Text and photos by Chiew Lin May

During the play fight, Bongkud (left) and Rungus (right) show their canine teeth and claws to prove who among them has more strength!!

Bongkud has another new buddy and playmate, Rungus. Rungus is a 5 year old sub adult female. Rungus’ name is the name of an ethnic group who live in the Kudat district of Sabah. She was kept at the Victory Mini Zoo Farm in Kudat, Northern Sabah and arrived at BSBCC on the 12^th  November 2010.

On the 26^th February 2013, Bongkud was integrated with Rungus. Once the gate was opened Rungus went into the next cage where Bongkud was located. Rungus sniffed Bongkud and was very curious. After two minutes, both started to play fight together!! Bongkud has a smaller body compared to Rungus, but this was not a problem for Bongkud and she got on very well with her new friend. Both of them kept chasing each other around and standing up on both hind legs before rolling together to show who has more strength. Their claws and canines were also shown. Tired from play fighting, both had a rest and were gasping for breath. Sometimes Bongkud would climb up high to avoid Rungus who was biting her on the neck. It was very interesting when they were play fighting inside the basket for about thirty minutes. Rungus was always looking very cool and peaceful.  At the end of the day, the integration was a great success. Rungus was the one who showed the most dominance.

Bongkud and Rungus will integrate for two to three hours. As usual, both of the sun bears will play fight, chase each other, roll and climb around together. So far their interactions are positive and finally they are become good playmates.

These are the pictures that show how Bongkud and Rungus play fight.

Rungus (left) and Bongkud (right) was spend their time play fight inside the basket for about thirty minutes.

Text and photos by Chiew Lin May

Julaini, a 4 year old sub adult male, was named after the head welder who constructed the new bear house. Julaini came to the centre from Lok Kawi Wildlife Zoo on the 3rd July 2010. Julaini has a cataract problem, which has resulted in a white dot on his left eye.

Bongkud, a 2 year old sub adult female, was named after the village where she was rescued in Ranau, Sabah. She arrived at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) last year on the 19th June 2012.

Julaini started integrating with Bongkud on the 25th February 2013 at 2.44 pm. Once the gate was opened, Julaini went into the next cage where Bongkud was located. Julaini initiated play fighting and started to sniff Bongkud’s body and was very curious about her. They gently touched and sniffed the face and neck of each other using their mouth and nose. Once play-fighting began, both sun bears stood on their hind legs and tried to push each other over with their strong paws. However, Bongkud being a little too playful started to bite Julaini. Julaini bite Bongkud back and he started asserting his dominance by pinning Bongkud on the ground. Before long though, they were rolling, chasing,  play fighting and climbing around together. There was no barking or huffing sounds happening when they were play fighting, however, they did bare their claws and canine teeth.  After a few minutes together they had already started to accept each other.

Julaini (front) and Bongkud (behind) was showed up their strong claws and canine teeth !!

Both spends the day with chasing, rolling and play fight together without aggression behavior.

There was a good deal of mutual sniffing and playing together. They spent much time playing, chasing and resting. They would often try and guess the other’s mood before continuing to play fight!!

Sometimes they continued to play until they were both very tired and then they would rest on the ground. At one point Julaini wanted to rest and eat some fruit but Bongkud still wanted to continue play fighting. However, Julaini made it clear by making some warning sounds that he was not interested in playing first and continued to eat and forage. Bongkud got the message and left Julaini alone. Their play fighting though was mostly very gentle. Both of the sun bears did not show any signs of aggression. At the end of the day the integration was going well and a great success. But, Julaini was definitely showing dominance over Bongkud.

Bongkud tried to show Julaini that she has the strength too !!

Juliani showed dominance over bongkud !!

Bongkud was rest at branch after tired play fight with Julaini.

At the end of the integration with Julaini, Bongkud expression showed that finally she can lying down on ground floor to rest.

For the rest of their first week together they integrated well and no aggression was noted. After all, Bongkud now has a new friend and playmate and is getting on very well with Julaini!!

Text by Gloria Ganang and photo by Wong Siew Te

Bongkud, a 1-year-old sun bear arrived at the centre last June. She was named after the village where she was rescued,  located in the Ranau district of Sabah. She had yellowish coat and milk teeth when she first arrived. However, Bongkud’s coat has gradually improved (she now has darker coat) and her canine teeth is developing.

Fulung (meaning “forest” in the native Lundayeh language), is 2 years old and came to the centre in August 2010. He is from Long Pasia village in Sipitang district of Sabah. He used to be integrated with Mary and Debbie (both sub adult females). However, Fulung had an injury on his belly and needed to be stitched and separated from his girl pals until his wound heals. It has been 5 months since his separation from the rest.

Bongkud moved in to the cage next to Fulung on the 11^th August 2012. Through the expressions of Fulung’s behavior, he couldn’t wait to play with Bongkud.

Finally the day came, when the gates between them was opened. Fulung’s wound looked fantastic and Bongkud is ready for integration with other bears. The gate was opened at 3.10pm yesterday (7^thSeptember 2012). Fulung, oftenly being the curious one went into his next cage while Bongkud was still busy suckling her feet and playing with the fire hose inside her basket.

Fulung sensed Bongkud and instantly climbed inside her cage. Bongkud, not realizing Fulung’s presence startled and gave Fulung an alarming bark! Her immediate reaction was moving a step back from Fulung to the other end of her basket. They both starred at each other for a few seconds and Fulung stepped away, sensing that it was not yet the right moment for playtime. He let Bongkud to settle down until he slowly approached her again, gave her a little sniff from his sticky nose and then…….PLAYTIME!

Fulung (left) and Bongkud (right),
“step inside my basket”.

Bongkud (left), “I got canines too!”

Bongkud (left), “I’m smaller but I’m stronger”

Fulung (left), “I have bigger claws!”

Bongkud (right) giving Fulung a bite on the neck.

Another bite at the back from Bongkud

Fulung and Bongkud played for nearly an hour. They chased, rolled over and bit each other. They totally ignored the keepers who were feeding them. Bongkud was the first one to feel exhausted but Fulung couldn’t get enough of the fun of biting and chasing. They continued playing until it was dinner time where both of them went back to their own cages. The gate between them was closed. It was 5pm. The BSBCC team had to sign out and open the gate again the next day. Since this was their first integration, it requires monitoring until we are certain that they are good playmates.

This is a special day for Bongkud. This could be her first contact with another sun bear after a very long time. However, Bongkud has a long way ahead of her in going through rehabilitation until she returns to the wild again.

Text and photos by Gloria Ganang and Tee Thye Lim

Bongkud, a sub adult sun bear at the BSBCC meets new neighbors 2 days ago (11th August 2012). The little sun bear was rescued from a village called Bongkud near to the district of Ranau, Sabah and came to the centre last June. She was isolated in a separate cage throughout her quarantine period. Now she gets to stay in a neighboring cage with Fulung a sub adult male and also two adult bears, Kudat and Panda.

BSBCC keepers preparing the cage for Bongkud.

Spreading dried leaves on the floor of Bongkud’s new cage.

Bongkud, relaxing on her little platform while the staff are preparing her cage.

The transfer process went on smoothly. However it took some while for Bongkud to step into her new cage even though she was keen to go towards the honey smeared in the cage area.

Translocating Bongkud to her new cage

Fulung (left) checking out his new neighbor, Bongkud (right).

She finally stepped in. Instantly, she climbed around her cage the moment she noticed the space and unfamiliar furnitures of the cage. But what really caught her attention was her new neighbors. They were all curios and started getting closer and sniffing each other. This would be Bongkud’s first contact with other sun bears after a very long time.

Panda (further side of cage) meeting little Bongkud.

“Wanna play with some cardboard?”, Fulung.

Fulung, taking a nap in his basket after the integrating session with Bongkud.

Bongkud (front), can’t get enough of her new cage. She explores every part of it while Kudat and Panda (back) watches her.

Bongkud is getting used to her new cage now. She starts sleeping in the basket and plays around with the enrichmnents. She practices her climbing skills quite often although she started a little bit clumsy at the beginning. High hopes for this little bear to climb on real trees of the rainforest!

Text and Photos by Tee Thye Lim

A health check has been performed on Bongkud by Dr. Diana Ramirez from Wildlife Rescue Unit, Sabah Widlife Department (SWD) and Wong on June 26th.

Wong was moving Bongkud out from the cage

Through the health check, we found out that there are some conditions of Bongkud that need to be improved to make sure that she grow healthy under the care of BSBCC.

Bongkud, the latest recued sun bear who reached BSBCC on 19^th June 2012, only weigh 16kg and consider as “underweight” her size.

Wong checked on the heartbeat of Bongkud while Dr. Diana was checking for her body temperature.

Bongkud has a new set of permanant teeth and her canines are still erupting.

Bongkud's canines still under eruption

Compare to a healthy sun bear, the coat of Bongkud is yellowish, meager, and dried. We suspected this condition is due to malnutrition.

At the same time, her body also has few patches of old wounds and scars on her head and paw. Wong suspected the wounds and scars could resulted from the rubbing against small cage in the previous cage where she grow up.

The wound patch on the right paw of Bongkud probably due to rubbing on cage.

The wound patch on the head of Bongkud

A scar was found on the upper left of her chest mark, which we don’t know the actual cause.

Can you spot the scar?

Rashes were found between her claws. Cream was applied by Dr. Diana on Bongkud’s claw.

Rashes were found between the claws

Bongkud’s health check took us around 30 minutes to complete.

Wong placed Bongkud back to her temporary cage

Text and photos by Siew Te Wong

BSBCC recently received a new rescued pet sun bear cub. Kept in a small cage, this poor bear was first seen by a friend of BSBCC in a remote village call Bongkud near Poring Hot Spring in Ranau Township, central Sabah. He then reported the incident to BSBCC and we filed a report to Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD). A rescue operation was conducted by the Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit on June 7th.

We name this female cub “Bongkud,” after the name of the village where she was rescued. It was already nightfall on June 19th when Bongkud arrived at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Weighing about 12 kg and with milk teeth attached, we estimated Bongkud about 10 months old. Unlike other sun bears, the coat of Bongkud looks rather dried, meager, and yellowish. I suspected she is suffering from malnutrition, a common problem that we experience from captive sun bear cubs. Her body has few patches of old scars that could resulted from unknown wounds and rubbing against small cages.

Bongkud is tame and did not show any sign of aggression since she arrived at the centre. Her mellow behavior could mean one thing- she was captured from the wild at a very young age. We still have not received her full report about the confiscation and information about the previous owner so we have no way to tell about her history. We placed her in a temporary cage. A full medical examination and health check will be carried out soon by the SWD’s veterinarian to check for potential illness and assess general health.

The number of rescued sun bear currently house at BSBCC is now reached 27 bears with the arrival of Bongkud. We hope we could provide a good and safe halfway house for her at the same time plans for reintroduction is underway. The task is never easy since the first day we started the project. However, with your help and support, we are determine to give these rescued sun bears a better home!  

Bongkud's fur appear to be quit yellow and less black Bongkud is curios on the tired that we give her as toy in her cage.

 

Bongkud is curios on the tired that we give her as toy in her cage.