Malaysian wild animals to be filmed for American TV
Category: BSBCC, education | Date: Oct 26 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
By MUGUNTAN VANAR
KOTA KINABALU: American animal expert Jack Hanna, popularly known as “Jungle Jack” is in Malaysia for a television shoot of the wild.
The 62-year-old is in Sabah to film orang utans, sunbears, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants in the wilds of Borneo for his entertainment and educational television show “Jack Hanna’s Into The Wild.”
Hanna and his crew will also be heading towards Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia during his two-week trip to Malaysia and Singapore for at least four 30-minute television series.
Invited by Tourism Malaysia, Hanna told reporters here that the great apes and elephants had always fascinated him and that it was the first time he was doing a show on orang utan and the Borneo pygmy elephants.
‘’I have always wanted to come to Malaysia but my tight schedules around the world delayed me. I am really excited to be here in Borneo,” said Hanna who has been hosting educational animal shows for the last 43 years.
In Sabah, he will focus on the Sandakan Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Sunbear Conservation, Guamuntong caves, Kinabatangan and Labuk Bay before leaving for Kuching where he will focus on the Sarawak Cultural Village and Bakun National Park.
He will briefly visit Singapore before heading to Batu Caves and Kuala Gandar Elephant Sanctuary in the peninsula.
“Our show is about people, culture and animals,” said Hanna whose shows reach 98% of the audience in the United States.
He is a regular guest in Good Morning America, Larry King Live, The Late Show with David Letterman and Fox News Programmes.
Hanna, who stresses on respecting animals in their habitats, the theme of his series were to educate people on the various animals as it was a foundation towards conservation efforts.
“When I say respect animals, I mean you should just leave them to do what they are doing in their habitat and not disturb or provoke them,” he added.
Hanna said that his company allowed the host country to get rights to use his films for their respective promotions.
Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Jack Hanna, Malaysia, Sabah, sun bear, wildlife
Three Amigos
Category: BSBCC, Volunteers, education, sanctuary | Date: Oct 19 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Photos and text by Jocelyn Stokes
Over here at the centre the bear crew can’t help but take a keen liking to a trio of young sun bears who may have actually been acrobats in a past life. While one is hanging upside down from the ceiling with its head arched back and legs flailing in the air, another will be swinging though the air in a tire, whilst the other is usually balancing stealthily in the corner, arms straight up, or perhaps tearing open a coconut. They’re a regular riot to observe with their overflowing abundance of character and youthful antics! Deemed the ‘three amigos’ by a troupe of loyal volunteers from New Zealand, these three bears, Jolita, Lawa and Cerah, truly delight in each other’s company. “The reason they get along so well,” explains Wai Pak, the onsite Educational Officer, “is because they are so young. At their age they need playmates. They all happen to be the same age, as well, and they have grown up in captivity, so they are particularly fond of each other!”
It’s a truly enjoyable sight to behold when a group of young wild, animals with a rather unfortunate past can be helped to live in such contentment. And, why not? These bears are blessed with more love and attention than most creatures could dream of having. Although their living space in not quite adequate yet, these bears are still receiving the utmost care. Through the hard work and dedication of the small BSBCC staff, along with the fresh, motivated energy of the volunteer groups, these bears receive healthy nourishment, instinctual stimulation, and well-cared for environments. All the bears have to worry about is how they’ll break open their next coconut and even that doesn’t seem to challenge them for too long.
1 - Labors of Love - our friendly bear caretaker, David, is bringing sugar cane, fruit and other yummy treats for the bears.
2 - Wai Pak is happily raking dry leaves to put into the bear cages, which helps to create a more natural surface for them to walk on.
Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Jocelyn Stokes, sun bear, Volunteer
sun bear: the forgotten bear
Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education, publication | Date: Oct 17 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
bear1.pdf bear-2a.pdf bear-3.pdf
This is a new article that I wrote for Society & Environment-A monthly magazine published by Zayed International Prize for the Environment (www.zayedprize.org.ae) what base in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was published in the July 2009 issue. Special thanks to Ms Seema Sangra, the Editor and the Art Director of the magazine for publishing this sun bear article.
Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, magazine Siew Te Wong, Sabah, Society and Environment, sun bear
A Sun Bear IS NOT a Panda—
Category: BSBCC, captivity, conservation, education, sanctuary | Date: Oct 06 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
A call for wildlife education and awareness in Malaysia
by Wai Pak Ng
Recently a friend and supporter of BSBCC went to visit the Victory Mini Zoo Farm in Papart, Kudat in the Northern Region of Borneo, and he was shocked by what he found. Apparently the Zoo was advertising that they had a Panda Bear but instead it was 2 Malayan Sun Bears, which are Totally Protected under Sabah’s Wildlife Conservation Enactment. The rationale for incorrectly identifying the bears is unclear—they may be using the name Panda to attract visitors or they could be mistaken about the type of Bear that they are housing. Either way, this error is misleading and embarrassing and unfortunately indicates that the Zoo management know very little about the wildlife that they are responsible for, which is a scary indicator of the level of treatment that the animals are receiving.
This gaffe also highlights the general lack of education that people have about the Malayan Sun Bear, and with this type of misinformation, it is no wonder that most people do not know that Malaysia has a bear species. This example proves that the local Malaysian community lacks coherent and correct information regarding wildlife in the region and would benefit substantially from increased environmental education and awareness. Malaysia is urgently in need of a complete environmental education system that would help promote local appreciation of our natural resources, unique wildlife species and our fragile natural habitat.
Perhaps the first step in addressing this issue would be for the government to implement and enforce strict guidelines on the Mini Zoos in the country, to ensure that they are utilizing best practices in caring for the animals and that the conditions provided for wildlife are appropriate. In conjunction with this, the government also has the opportunity to promote and fund Wildlife Centres that focus on awareness and education of local and international visitors in order to increase the impact that these Centres have. It is the time for the people and government of Malaysia to address the treatment of animals in Zoos and captivity (both legal and illegal) and begin to support a more sustainable and long-term model of animal care and welfare.
Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Mini Zoo, Sabah, sun bear
Researcher shines light on ‘forgotten species’
Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education | Date: Sep 23 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Story by Hannah J. Ryan | September 23, 2009
Montana Kaimin
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.
Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, sun bear
Joanna Bessey interviewed Siew Te Wong on the plights of sun bears
Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education | Date: Aug 28 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Malaysian actress Joanna Bessey interviewed Siew Te Wong on the plights of sun bears at Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. The program was aired globally in BBC World News on April 4th 2009.
You can read more about the filming at http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/11/06/sweat-and-smell-the-bears-is-good-to-be-back/
Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Joanna Bessey, Siew Te Wong, sun bear
BSBCC new video
Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education, sanctuary, threats | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
BSBCC on youtube
Category: BSBCC, conservation, education | Date: Jul 27 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
The first video clip from BSBCC was finally created and posted on youtube 2 hours ago. I really hope youtube would be another tool to help us promote sun bear conservation and our work to help sun bears.
Our channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/BSBCC
Please feel free to help us spread the words and the share the video clips.
Special thanks to Shayna Zaid for allowing me to use her song, Room for Love.
Thank you Columbus Zoo! Mission accomplished!
Category: BSBCC, Fund raising, Siew Te Wong, education | Date: Jul 16 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Thank you Columbus Zoo! Mission accomplished!
Thank you Columbus Zoo to host my talk at the zoo today. Special thanks to Rebecca Rose, the Field Conservation Coordinator , for the warm hostility to make our stay comfortable and unforgettable one. About 50 zoo staffs attended today’s talk after having a burger dinner. Everyone enjoyed the talk very much. I hope beside enjoying me talking, they also will learn the message and help us promote sin bear conservation and raise awareness for sun bears.
Columbus Zoo has been an important contributor and supporter for my doctorate study in 2005 and 2006. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Columbus Zoo and Aquarium over and over again for their believe and help sun bears. I hope you all could continue supporting sun bears and our works in many ways.
Columbus is the last stop of our trip. With mission accomplished, tomorrow my family and will head home- how far? 2000 miles.
Thank you Columbus Zoo!
Sun Bear in New York
Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, education | Date: Jul 08 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
No, it is actually me -Sun Bear Man – Wong visiting New York for few days with my family to give talk and do a fund raising for BSBCC. Today’s schedule was visiting and giving a talk at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo. Thanks to the assistant director of the WCS Global Conservation Department Asian Program, Peter Clyne for arraigning the talk in a short notice.
WCS has funded my work back in 2000 under their Research Fellowship Program. I am very thankful for their support. I hope they could continue to support sun bear work in many ways in the future.
Today it was a total zoo in the Bronx Zoo! Wednesday is a free admission day to the zoo, so it has become a very popular attraction for a lot of New Yorkers. It was packed with people and close to a chaos! The talk was great unfortunately my family and I did not see much animals, except people.
Thanks WCS and the Bronx Zoo for the warm hospitality!
Tomorrow: fund raising evening with Alexander Abraham Foundation. Stay tune!
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