Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Text and photos by Chiew Lin May

On March 13^th 2013, Ah Lun and Julaini stepped foot into the forest for the first time. These 4 sub-adult sun bears are now spending their days roaming, foraging, and digging in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) forest enclosure.

Ah Lun and Julaini watch how and wondering why Natalie go out from door.

Ah Lun, female sub-adult sun bear step foot on forest floor. She follow Rungus roaming around the forest enclosure.

Julaini is the last one who confident to step the foot on forest floor.

Now Natalie and Rungus are confidently roaming the forest. Once the door is open both of them will go out immediately. They are enjoying their freedom. They have large trees to climb, decayed wood/logs, soil to dig in, and a natural forest to explore. Through the forest enclosure they look for a comfortable place to take a rest. They are doing well and spending the rest of their days getting used to the sights and sounds of their new environment where they are learning what it takes to live like wild sun bears.

Natalie is an excellent climber, and spends much of her time in trees foraging for her meals, insects, by using her long, sharp claws. Natalie is a great leader. She is very independent and has taught herself how to climb high up in the trees. Additionally, she loves to be outside. Rungus likes to makes a mess by scraping off all the soil or decayed wood she can searching for termites, beetles and other invertebrates. Ah Lun and Julaini surprisingly have shown some confident roaming in the forest enclosure already. Ah Lun prefers to spend her time alone, playing happily in the forest enclosure. It took Julaini a while to come out of his door and take a few steps. He was extremely wary of his new surroundings. He sniffed and foraged around the entire place.

It has been very heart-warming to see them grow in confidence and strength, as they become used to using all four limbs and climbing high up in the trees. All these things encourage natural, wild behaviour. They are all making great progress.

Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) is in a wonderful location for true rehabilitation as the forest has huge trees sun bears love. Seeing this forest dwelling species digging and climbing happily in the forest all day long is extremely motivating.

Here are a couple of photos of Natalie, Rungus, Ah Lun and Julaini roaming, digging and climbing trees at BSBCC forest enclosure.

Natalie, Rungus, Ah Lun and Julaini is happily roaming at forest enclosure.

Natalie, the group leader become an excellent climber.

Natalie loves to spend a lot of their time on trees.

Agile climber, Natalie use her powerful and long claws to climb trees search for food or rest on trees.

Rungus is like to spend time on digging soil and decayed wood foraging for food.

Rungus was keeping an eye out whilst foraging.

Using her long and sharp claws, Ah Lun was busy foraging food from the tree hole.

Ah Lun use canines to chew the dead log.

Julaini likes spend much of the day sunbathing or resting. Sometimes, Ah Lun and Natalie will company and play together with him.

It was hot afternoon, Natalie took rest on the forest floor.

Natalie use long tongues to slurp up the termites or insects.

Rungus and Natalie was grooming each other!!

In the forest, Rungus and Natalie was play together. It is amazing !! They love to explore forest very much.

Keep up to date on Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre news by visiting our website www.bsbcc.org.my

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!!

By Marianne Sim

It was a great privilege to work as a volunteer for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) at Sepilok for four weeks (Feb/Mar 2011).  I was greeted on arrival at Sandakan airport by the forever smiling Wai Pak Ng, BSBCC Project Manager. 
 
My first day commenced with an induction by the Sun Bear keepers David and Daniel.  I was introduced to all 19 Sun Bears, safety procedures were explained and the keepers demonstrated how to perform the work required. I assisted David and Daniel by preparing food, cleaning pens and providing enrichment for the bears.  The keepers were a pleasure to work with and my enrichment ideas were welcomed.
 
As a volunteer you really get to know and recognise the bears individually.  They all have different pale orange-yellow markings on their chest and all have their own personality.  The youngest bear is around 6 months old and the oldest bear around 16 years old. 

I was very impressed with the design of the new bear house.  It has a lot of natural light, is well ventilated, easy to clean, and has a well designed feeding/watering system. The outdoor enclosure is a large primary forest area with many tall trees.  This allows the bears to exhibit natural bear behaviour e.g. climbing trees, digging, breaking apart rotten logs searching for insects.

The Sun Bear is a ‘vulnerable’ species and could become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival improve.  Sun Bears are threatened by habitat destruction, conflict with humans, poaching for bear body parts and bear bile used in Chinese medicine and the pet trade.  The Sun Bears natural habitat has been destroyed as the land is taken over by palm oil plantations.  Palm oil is found in a variety of products on our supermarket shelves including margarine, chocolate, biscuits and soap to name a few.  It is important that we all take responsibility for the products we put in our supermarket trolleys and we keep the pressure on governments, manufacturers and supermarkets to improve product labelling so we can make informed choices about the products we purchase. There are many medicinal alternatives to using bear body parts and bear bile in Chinese medicine.  Please use these alternatives and end the bears suffering.  Sun Bears make very bad pets.  Although they appear cute as babies they have long claws, sharp teeth and are very strong.  They soon grow up, become difficult to control and end up depressed in confined cages.  Their home is the forest and they should never be kept as pets for human entertainment.
 
I particularly enjoyed observing the bears in their forest enclosure and during their enrichment activities.  The youngest bear Natalie, approximately 6 months old, is a joy to observe (http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2011/01/16/update-of-natalie/).  Natalie has endless energy, is constantly playing and exhibits natural bear instincts.  Natalie has the right qualities to be released back into the wild but in order to do this funds are required to start the rehabilitation process.  Staff are required to care and monitor her until she can confidently display all the skills needed to survive in the forest on her own.  With your donation (http://www.leapspiral.org/content/support_leap.php) or merchandise purchase (http://www.zazzle.co.uk/gifts?ch=theborneansunbear) the BSBCC will be one step closer to this happening.  Funds are also required to build a Sun Bear visitors centre at Sepilok.  This will be an important educational facility and gives visitors the opportunity to learn about this charismatic bear species. 
 
While working as a volunteer I observed first hand the hard work, long hours and dedication of Siew Te Wong (CEO and Founder of BSBCC) and Wai Pak (BSBCC Project Manager).  They are great ambassadors for the Sun Bear.  They are men of integrity and are extremely committed to helping the Sun Bear.  I am 100% confident that any donation you make will be wisely utilised and benefit the Sun Bears greatly.
 
Thank you Wong and Wai Pak for an unforgettable volunteer experience.  I feel extremely privileged to have worked with such dedicated people and remarkable animals.  I will miss the people and the bears but look forward to coming back and seeing how the bears have developed and progressed to their final destination, their true home, THE FOREST.

Marianne Sim

United Kingdom

Natalie the sun bear cub and Wai Pak (left) encountered Marianne (right) and Paul (middle) who were woring on the enrichment in our old bear house.

Jelita the sun bear climbing a tree in the forest enclosure at BSBCC

Lawa the sun bear peeking through the undergrowth vegetation in BSBCC.

May 17, 2011

Yesterday May 16th was my 42th birthday. At first I was thinking I would spend this day just like my other days – clean our office in the morning (Monday is cleaning day), work, spend time with our bears, and no one will know about my birthday. My family was not with me (have not seen them “physically” for 3 months, ) so I will have a quiet birthday. It turned out that what I experienced physically on my birthday was nothing special- no party, no birthday cake, and no birthday candles, but what I experienced in my heart from the cyber world was very special! From midnight of the 16th, friends from my facebook page across the world, many of them I never meet, started to leave me birthday wishes on my facebook profile page. Until today, there were more than 250 birthday wishes on it. I never had so many birthday wishes, ever, in my life. On top of that, my facebook birthday wish has raised US$495 for Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre from 14 donors. Thank you all for your birthday wishes and your donation to help our sun bears. I certainly can feel the positive energy from your wishes, encouragements, complements, and all the positive and cheerful words that you wrote! This energy keeps me and my team going and move forward!

Thank you all for your supports and wishes!

I spent my birthday with the 21 rescued-ex-pet sun bears at BSBCC. Jelita, Cerah and 3 others females came to greed me from their state-of-the-art forest enclosure. Seeing them walking, foraging, and climbing in this forest enclosure with dense vegetations, trees of all sizes, and fill with all kind of life forms are by far the most rewarding and happy experience that I can think of for this special day and all the hard working days in the past. I did not see other bears in their forest enclosure because their enclosures are so dense with vegetation and big that seeing a bear on forest floor or up in the tree canopy are actually very difficult. They live like wild bears! No more bars, no more cement floor, and no pacing. It made me feel that I have a purpose to serve in my life when I was born some 42 years ago.     

I walked Natalie for few hours in the forest. She is now capable of climbing high on tree and do all the wild things that a sun bear would do in the forest.  Very few people actually know how hard we work to make this project possible until this point. Seeing all of these bears free from cages and enjoy the mighty and magnificent forest make all the hard works over the last 6 years pay off.

Thank you all of you, especially those who help us in many ways to make BSBCC a successful project. Now most of our sun bears can enjoy the sun in the forest that they call home!
Thank you all of you who donated money for my birthday wish for BSBCC and wish me a happy birthday. I have a great birthday, despite a lonely birthday without family, and love ones.  Thank you is the only thing I can say to you all.
Please continue to help us, support us, and help us spread the words and love for this little known bears!

 Text by Shauna Tay, Photos Siew Te Wong

 Natalie, our baby of the centre, is becoming our wildest. Being a young cub, she is somewhat controllable when taking her outdoors. We are able to walk side by side with her into any patch of forest and let her do her thing. She’s now become so confident in climbing and foraging that it makes you realise how wild these bears are meant be.

She’s improved with each time I’ve seen her out. Wai Pak and Paul had said that previously when they took her out she just wanted to play and interact with them. However now she doesn’t take any notice of us. She shoots up trees and climbs to the very top with all her strength.

 It was amazing watching this 6 month old sun bear sync in with her wild instincts and naturally make her way up the trees and branches. She knew that clawing at rotting wood would find her termites, and that climbing higher up a tree would find her new sights and smells she hadn’t encountered before.

 Although we can see she knows what to do in her habitat, it doesn’t erase the fact that she needs her mother. Sun bear cubs usually stay with their mothers until they are 2 years old. Now, this 6 month baby cub has no mother, and probably doesn’t remember much about ever having one. It makes you sad thinking about how she could be out in the wild with her mother if it weren’t for hunters and poachers. This is the harsh world we live in.

 While working against that, we have hope for these bears. They’ve lived hard, unnatural lives, but with BSBCC’s dedication we hope they’ll soon be able to have that life they’re meant to live.

Natalie become better climber each day.

sun bear is the most aboreal bear if compares to other bear species.

http://bearingupinborneo.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/a-big-week-for-linggam-natalie/

By Paul Clenton 

Lingham is a very handsome, 6 year old male bear with a gentle and friendly personality. He was first brought to Sepilok as a cub (only 3.5kg) in August 2004 after being found at a logging camp at Kampung Pinangah. After a stay at Sepilok Linggam went to Lok Kawi Zoo. He was transferred back from Lok Kawi due to reported aggression problems (though that has never been observed here) and lack of space. Since coming here he is noticeably healthier though perhaps slightly underweight. Linggam is currently undergoing training and this week was finally able to go out into the forest enclosure.

I was watching him discretely while he took his first tentative steps out into the natural world. The transition to a wilderness environment is challenging for an adult bear which has grown up in a world of iron and concrete, but as I observed him it was obvious to see he was constantly thinking, calculating the safe distance to go from his doorway. Some might criticise him for not just running off outside and climbing a tree, but it is this caution he was demonstrating that keeps bears away from hazards in the wild. His approach did not surprise me; he seems the most pensive of bears, when I reflect upon howe he interacts with his enrichment items.

I look forward to observing him over the coming days and weeks to witness his discovery of the wonderful piece of rainforest habitat he now can call home. Watching a bear simply “be a bear” is an incredible thing to do.

Natalie has started to eat some more solid food. She gets 2 trays of rice a day, just like the other bears. The only difference is that her tray has only about 1/4 the typical serving. Awww, baby! She looks so adorable when she tucks in to her rice porridge with her little paws resting either side of the tray. She also gets several servings of milk, served like some posh coffee with chocolate flakes, only her warm drink comes with dog biscuits!

Sun bear, the world smallest bear, is also the world most arboreal bear.

They are equipped with soft food pads and strong curved claws that help them cling and grip on tree trunks and branches.

Since little, their instinct of climbing and exploring the height are strong.

They climb the trees for few purposes: finding food, rest and sleep on trees.

It is advantage for the sun bears to seek shelter on tree because there forest floor is always wet in the tropical rainforest.

Also, predators that known to pray on sun bears are often found on forest floor.

Sun bear are very agile on trees, to a point that they look more like apes, such as chimpanzee, than a bear.    

They start climbing at young age because it may take them a long time to master the skill of tree climbing.

At five months old, Natalie the sun bear cub is slowly improving her tree climbing skills.

Although clumsy sometime, the clumsiness is an important learning process for Natalie to be a skillful tree climber!

Natalie is one of many sun bear cub rescued by Sabah Wildlife Department that sent to Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.

BSBCC aims to conserve sun bear and educate the public on the plights of this little known bear. 

We need your help and support to make this happen.

Please visit http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/

Please help us spread the words and share this video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/03LerWmK970" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Please view BSBCC’s new video of Natalie the sun bear cub digging and excavating decayed wood!

Please help us spread the words about this video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/v7PKsQ1BuvU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

http://sandakantours.blogspot.com/2011/02/sun-bear.html

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Last week on Feb 13th, I finally landed at Kota Kinabalu International Airport at the capital of Sabah. This was the day that I have been long waiting for; the day when I can return to and serve to my home country. I am glad and relieved that I finally finished the prolonged education process in the US at the age of 42. This joy is not only cherished by myself and my family, but also by many friends, colleagues and supporters across the world.

Over the following few days my schedule was packed with meeting officials from Sabah Wildlife Department, NGOs and the LEAP team, accompanied by their handshakes. “Wong is back!” However, these warm welcomes were also accompanied by the bad news of more baby sun bears having been confiscated by the Wildlife Department or being kept as pets by villagers. Even worse, was the sad news of the death of Ah Chong on the morning of Feb 15th. Ah Chong was a sweet but old male sun bear who came to us 10 years ago. The necropsy of Ah Chong performed by Dr. Diana Ramirez on the next day indicated that his death was due to Congestive Heart Failure caused by an abnormal heart that associated with genetic abnormality. May you rest in peace Ah Chong! You will be missed in our life always!

On Feb 18th, I finally travelled from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan where the BSBCC is based. Wai Pak picked me up from the Sandakan airport. We went straight from the airport to the BSBCC to see the sun bears. It was really good to be back again to see that both the facility and the bears are growing. The sun bears greeted me with their curious sniff on my hand, which I think they still recognized my smell except for a few newcomers whom I had never meet who had no idea who I was. 

My first meeting with Natalie the baby sun bear was an unforgotten one. Her loveliness and adorableness is something beyond anything human language can possibly describe. Her condition is much more stable now with increased appetite and she is slowly gaining weight. Her diarrhea problem, which was a concern during the first few weeks after her arrival also seem to be under control. She has passed the most vulnerable stage as an infant and starting to eat solid food and growing stronger. Her relatively big eyes, small ears, short but soft hairs really caught my eyes and my heart. Beside the cuteness of her little black hairy body, I really hope that we all can understand the reason she is here because of poaching, illegal logging, pet trade, with high likelihood that her mother had been killed. 

During the first few days I am at the centre everyone on the ground was working really hard: Wai Pak the project manager had overseen all of the operations on the ground and was working around the clock; David and Daniel the animal keepers keep busy with their daily routine taking care of the bears with the helps from volunteers Marianne Sim, Paul Clenton, Janine Pickwick, and John Lane; A group of 15 volunteers from Raleigh International working tirelessly to build the perimeter fencing of the outdoor enclosure. Thank you all for all your help!

Today marks the first week I am back to Sabah. Over the last seven days, we discussed many plans and events that to be take place in the near future: a fund raising event that will take place in Sepilok that involves local corporate and community; a fund raising event took place on facebook, an ambitious research project using camera trapping data, GIS, and radio-telemetry techniques to study the important of corridors at Kinabatangan River area involving multiple focal wildlife species including sun bears; a phylogenic study on sun bear across SE Asia; and on Feb 24th, I am going to Krau Wildlife Reserve in Peninsula Malaysia to assist a graduate student studying wild sun bears.  

A busy schedule lies ahead for sure for sun bears and the development of BSBCC.

I am finally home. It is good to be home!