Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

 Have you seen a sun bear building a tree nest? I bet you have NOT!

Many people not even know about sun bear or seen a sun bear, let alone seeing one of them making a nest high on top of the trees.

Here is a rare opportunity of a lifetime to see a radio-collar sun bear building a nest in the rainforest of Borneo.

Don’t blink and please hold your breath until the end of the video.

Tree nest
Sun bears in the wild make nest on tree and sleep on these tree nest like orangutans. However, nest building behavior is more common in forest where human disturbance is higher and large terrestrial predators like tigers, and leopards are presence. It makes sense for sun bears to make such tree nest and sleep on high on tree, some as high as 40 meters (128 feet) because it is much safer and dryer on top of tree. These nests usually consist of a pile of tree branches and twigs that are band over from the surrounding centered at a tree fork that close to the main trunk. The diameter of these tree nests ranges from a 1 to 2 meter. Unlike orangutan nest, sun bear rarely snap branches or break branches close by. I still lack of evident that they reuse these tree nests, and believe that they construct new nest every time they need one because wild sun bears tend to wonder a large range, unless there are important food resources available like a fruiting fig tree in the forest. Under this situation, sun bears tend to hang around the area until the food resource is depleted and they have to move on to forage for food. Although the metal baskets that we provide for our captive bears are very different from the natural nest, these bears still love them because these baskets give them a dry, safe, and cozy bed.

You can read more about the nest building behavior in my earlier blog:

http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/09/16/how-do-sun-bears-sleep-in-the-wild/

On north Borneo island, environmentalists are increasing their efforts to save one of the planet’s most endangered species, the sun bear.

Malaysian sun bear relaxes in enclosure at Frankfurt zoo (File)

Years of logging have taken a heavy toll on the habitats of the sun bear in Sabah, Malaysia’s easternmost state on Borneo island.

That plus demand for the bear’s body parts to be used in Chinese medicines and a local custom that prizes the animals as pets have sharply reduced their numbers in the wild.

New center will focus on public education

To save the animals from extinction, scientists and environmentalists are finalizing plans for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center, which will focus on public education and returning pet bears to the wild.

After 10 years of studies and fundraising, project coordinator Seiw Te Wong from the University of Montana in the United States, says construction of the center is about to begin.

“I realized there was quite a number of bears being held in captivity as pets and they were locked up in cages and kept in very, very poor condition – indeed very sad,” Wong explained. “So for the last several years I have been trying to set up this Sabah conservation center in order to help these captive animals.”

Eventually the center will care for more than 40 bears in a least four natural outdoor enclosures.

World’s smallest bears

Sun bears are the world’s smallest bears – with most weighing less than 60 kilograms. Their fur is dark brown or black, and they have big yellow or white crescent on their chests. The bears once roamed the jungles of much of Southeast Asia.

At the moment, there are so few bears in the wild that Wong says it is impossible to count them.

Sabah state is becoming an important part of global efforts to save endangered species. That is in part due to its success in preserving its remaining tropical jungles in remote areas, such as along the Kinabatangan River.

“Sabah compared to other places has a relatively good chance because there are still a lot of good forests left,” Wong said. “In Kinabatangan River, where the wildlife really is the star to attract tourist money to that area, I think the government has also seen that way and definitely this is the way for us to go.”

As a result, Wong says he is confident the Borneo sun bear can be rescued from extinction.

Most people tend to have a impression of Borneo, the world third largest island, as a wild place where thick forest carpeted the entire landscape, wildlife are everywhere, little human settlements, a place that simply cannot be any wilder than that. 

If you really think Borneo is really such a place, then, oops, sorry! You are so wrong! 

In the latest November issue of National Geographic, Mel White with the photographs from Mattias Klum, reveals the “Borneo’s Moment of Truth”. A must read article if you care about rainforest, wildlife that live in rainforest, people’s livelihood who live close to the forest, and finally to all life forms on Earth, including you and me. As Mel terms it as “The majestic forests are vanishing in smoke and sawdust, but there’s still hope for the island’s fabled biodiversity- if the palm oil rush can be slowed” 

Can we slow down the palm oil rush?? We have to, because there is no other way if we want to save the wild animals and wild plants that calls Borneon rainforest “home”.

Please read this article online at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/borneo/white-text, if you have not get your own copy. 

Please do not forget that you can always see Borneo with you own eyes easily from Google Earth without physically being there!