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
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
News from the ‘Front’
Category: BAT-Bornean Action Teams, BSBCC, Volunteers, sanctuary | Date: Sep 18 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
http://leapspiral.blogspot.com/
by Jungle Bob
Bear Action Teams (BATs)
Well, it’s been a few weeks since we had any updates from the Bear House and the BSBCC project in Sepilok. So, let’s get up to speed.
‘Suria’ has a ‘poorly’ paw and is confined to ‘quarters’ whist it repairs itself. Doc Cecillia has been in attendance and prescribed antibiotics.
‘Manis’ is doing well but has decided she doesn’t actually like other bears, she much prefers humans, especially Wai Pak (if anyone out there does understand the workings of the female brain, answers on a post card please). She has been taking some time out to check out her birthing pen and seems to like it. She is under constant surveillance at the moment which smacks of voyeurism but is a necessary evil.
Pregnant Manis
Soon, we hope to hear the pitter patter of little bear paws…
All the other bears are fit and well and enjoying a brief respite from the commotion of bagpipes and sweaty volunteers. Not for long though!
The Bear House is advancing well with the floor level completed and the first floor columns being poured right now. We are hoping to get them all in and set before ‘Hari Raya’ so that we can get on with the roof after it. It really does look like a building now and is very exciting.
Bear house… columns and stairs are up - almost there!
The plants on the Scots wall are clinging to life and will, hopefully, soon help it to look more natural and to blend in. Hadrian would have been proud of this wall!
The wall
Camps International are due in soon to help us to create a Biogas Digester (if you don’t know what that is then check it on the internet or speak to Ian!)
Raleigh has done a great job in the enclosure and has dug a trench around the whole circumference so that we can install our secret weapon. The Portcullis! This is basically an underground fence designed to stop the bears digging their way out once they are free to roam in the forest enclosures. Digging trenches in the jungle is probably one of the most unglamorous and backbreaking jobs so well done guys.
Whilst we are singing Raleigh’s praises, here is one more significant advance they have completed. The jungle camp is now operational and will be used by their first ‘guests’ when Camps Borneo move in there on the 20th of this month.
We are all looking forward to the next Raleigh invasion and further advances on the enclosure. It is our intention to have the enclosure ‘on line’ as the Bear House is complete and have the bears ready to take a stroll in the woods.
Bob Renshaw has kindly donated a couple of his days (plus his three hundred years of experience-yep, he really is that old!!) to come down later this week and conduct a full survey for the boardwalk and bridge which will, in time, bring our visitors into the centre. Well done Bob.
Donations from previous BATS (Bear Action Team’s volunteers) have been promised and t’shirt sales are bringing in a little bit more cash. Thanks guys, every little bit helps.
New BATS - I am currently talking to a scientific group from New Zealand who are willing to put their backs into a bit of hard work and we have recently had visits from the project managers of World Challenge Expeditions (UK)- (Jen Mullier) and Dragon Fly Hong Kong- (Adula) who are promising further volunteers for later this year and the beginning of 2010. As I tell every group “each day you work for us is a day we don’t have to pay a contractor”
Thanks to the previous BATS, every one of you is a star!
Tags: BAT, Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Camp International, Raleigh, Sabah, scouts, sun bear
Bear Exchange II: Lok Kawi Zoo - Sepilok
Category: BSBCC, sanctuary | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
By Wai Pak Ng
Elis and I stayed one night at Kota Kinabalu. The next morning, Dr. Sen was checking on the pregnant bear before we put her into the translocation cage. The bear’s name is Manis, which mean “sweet” in Malay language. Her weight was 43.7 kg. She might give birth within this month.
After made sure Manis was in healthy condition, we placed her in the cage with leaves and twigs. Then we hit the road back to Sepilok. 
Manis did well in her 8 hours road trip to BSBCC at Sepilok especially when we drove passed the foothill of the Mount Kinabalu. Mt Kinabalu is the highest mountain in Southeast Asia with an elevation of 4095 m a.s.l. We all enjoyed the beautiful scene and the cold air that is so much different from the warm, humid lowland air. Like the day before, we stopped several times to let Manis drink and eat some fruits. Manis was very gentle to me and Elis even though we were new to her. She never barked or show any signs of stress and aggression at us.
We were arrived at BSBCC Sepilok about 6 pm. I hope Manis will like her new home and live happily in our centre. Now her new home has a birthing den with a 24 CCTV monitoring system to record her very movement. Finally, we also pray that Manis could give birth to a healthy bear cub successfully this time.
Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Lok Kawi Zoo, Sabah, sun bear
The suckling behavior of captive sun bears
Category: captivity, sanctuary, sun bear in the wild | Date: Sep 04 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Contented Bear?
Check out the video.. one of the sun bears was making a weird sound. It’s the one in the basket, her name is Suzie. Perhaps Papa Bear, Wong Siew Te can explain why?
The above video was posted on LEAP blog by Sue.
Hi Sue,
Thanks for posting this behavior on sun bears that not many people know about. This sound is a “suckling” sound when the bear such a particular body part of themselves or other bears. It is fairly common among the captive sun bears, especially young ones. The reason behind this is actually quite sad.
In the wild, mother sun bears nurse their cubs up to 2 years or even longer. During this time, besides suckling for mother’s milk, the process of suckling also let the cubs seek comfort and feel secure and safe being side by side with their mother. This behavior is best explained by human babies sucking pacifier to seek comfort. Same theory: no milk draw out from the pacifier, but the suckling action make the babies feel comfort and safe.
Most captive sun bears share the very similar stories: they all were being captured by poachers and separated with the mother when they were at very young age. These were serious traumas, especially those mother bears being slaughtered in front of the babies. There was a story that I will never forgot in my life: a tiny baby sun bear was tied up for sale at Gaya Street Sunday market in Kota Kinabalu, and its mother was being cut up in pieces for sale as meat. This kind of trauma is way beyond anyone’s imagination. Anyway, these baby bears grow up without mother and without a chance to suckle. However, suckling is an innate behavior. When the cub is hungry or feel uncomfortable, they suckle their mother’s breast. For these poor captive bears, they do not have their mother around, but the urge to suckle is very strong. So they learn to suckle on something handy. This “something handy” can be any part of their body like limbs, toes, or paws. More commonly was something that they can “latch on” like their own penis for male bears or vulva for female bears. If there are other young bears around, they may suck on each other’s ears. They always suckle on the same object or the same body part over and over again that later become their favorite suckling object.
The suckling behavior may progress to their adulthood if they are constantly under stress. It is consider as a kind of “stereotypic” behavior. I worked with a female sun bear named Batik. Batik was about 2 year old when I released her into the forest. During her life in captivity, she suckled her left hind feet constantly, especially when she feel stress or threat, to a point where there was a hairless, bare patch on her left feet leg. She was kept in a small cage when she sucked most. When she was reintroduce into the forest, her suckling behavior ceased thereafter. New hairs grew back from her bare patch on her left hind feet.
Every time I approached young captive bears, I mean every time, I always give them my finger to suckle. They all would responded the same way: suckled my finger, admitted the sound you heard from this video clip, and calmed down with comfort.
“How can anyone done such a cruelty to a helpless animal?”
“How can we not to do our best to help them?”
Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, suckling, sun bear
BSBCC new video
Category: BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, conservation, education, sanctuary, threats | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
The Enrichment for the Sun Bears Part I.
Category: BSBCC, enrichment, sanctuary | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
By Wai Pak Ng
While we are waiting for the new bear house construction to be finished, the bears still have to keep in cages. Thus, to reduce the stress and boring level of our bears, enrichments are very important for them. Enrichment can be done in many ways which include physical construction, introducing new elements, foods, toys, arrangement of the facilities and cleanliness.
At the moment, our bear house has three exercise enclosures. Each of them was facilitated with various enrichments which includes heavy and hard wood logs, rock pool, water tank, dried leaves and decay wood with termites, to create a place that is as close as their natural habitat. All the bears will take turn to be released into the exercise enclosure in daily basis.
Sun bears like to bite and destroy. Branches, twigs and decay woods are their natural toys. 
Our bears like to roll on the dried leaves as it makes them feels like rolling on the forest floor.
To ensure our bears are fully utilizing all the enrichments and learn or revise the basic skills such as forage, digging, destroying and climbing, foods is always the best incentives. Normally, we cut fruits into various sizes and hide them in different places in the exercise enclosures. We have to think creative and try to not put the food in the same place for the same bear. Bears are smart and they really do remember where to search for their favorite banana and papaya.
Foods were hidden in different places to encourage our bears to exercise and foraging.
The bears have to forage in the rock pool, and this keeps them active.
Sun bears can be quite arboreal. Enrichment should encourage them to climb.
In the next article, I will still talk about the enrichments that we do in BSBCC. Hope to get your feed back and comments. Thank you.
Tags: behavior, BSBCC, enrichment, sun bear
A ground breaking to be remembered!
Category: BSBCC, Volunteers, sanctuary | Date: Jul 27 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Friday July 17th, 2009 saw the ground breaking for the long anticipated Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC), which will be adjacent to the famous Sepilok Orangutan Centre, 14 miles outside of Sandakan, Sabah. The event marked the commencement of construction of the first phase of BSBCC, which aims to provide rehabilitation and care for captive Sun Bears, and will be the first of its kind in Sabah.
The guest of honour, YB Datuk Masidi Manjun Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, was accompanied by partners of the project, Laurentius Ambu, Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department, Fred Kugan, Deputy Director of the Sabah Forestry Department and Cynthia Ong, executive director of LEAP. The event was attended by an international array of Scottish and Malaysian Scouts, Raleigh International volunteers, Rainforest Discovery Centre Junior Rangers and members of the private sector, all of whom came to show support for BSBCC and celebrate the start of this pioneering project.
The ceremony itself was as innovative as the concept of BSBCC promises to be. After two heartfelt speeches from YB Datuk Masidi Manjun and Cynthia Ong, four Bobohizans (traditional Kadazan Dusun healers/high priestesses) entered the center of a human circle to perform a ritual for the spirits to cleanse the area of past activities and prepare it for new life, protection and hope for the Sun Bears and the Centre.
Once the symbolic ritual had been completed, Datuk Masidi Manjun, Laurentius Ambu, Fred Kugan and Cynthia Ong gathered to officially break ground under the auspices of the Bobohizans. This was followed by Malaysian singer-songwriter Amir Yussof performing Calling on You, a song that he wrote about the Sun Bears’ plight for the fundraising event in November 2008 that enabled the first phase of BSBCC to be built. During the song, Malaysian Junior Rangers provided interesting facts and information about Sun Bears for the crowd. The inclusion of old tradition and knowledge coupled with young environmental leaders, highlighted the need for connection and cohesion between old and new when addressing conservation issues. The ceremony ended with the guests being serenaded by Scottish Scouts playing the bagpipes. This final touch paid tribute to the interconnectivity of the people represented at the event and brought into focus the international and regional significance and responsibility of stewardship of land and animals.
The ground breaking ceremony was especially significant to us, all the BSBCC and LEAP staff, who felt proud and moved to see the culmination of a year and a half of hard work celebrated by our partners and friends.
Katie King
Project Manager
(LEAP)
Tags: BSBCC, conservation, ground breaking, sun bear
Sunbears and Vegetarians
Category: BSBCC, sanctuary | Date: Jul 24 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
Photos by Sue Chong-Hartley, Text by Ian Hall
Original posted at http://arkitrek.com:80/http:/arkitrek.com/sunbears-and-vegetarians/
“We need an ayam jantan bertaji, don’t forget the taji. Taji is important!” Sue instructed me. At first she had asked Wai Pak to help find the cockerel but as a conscientious Buddhist he didn’t want to be complicit in killing an animal.
Normally the supply of sacrificial cockerels is not one of my professional services but I liked the idea of the story that I could tell afterward.
The Taji is the heel spur or claw that you only find on cockerels; they are an important weapon in cock fights and as such can cause controversy when unscrupulous owners apply poison to the taji of their prized fighters.
In this case the taji was important for the power it bestowed to a traditional Kadazan ritual for cleansing the ground for a new building, in this case our new sun bear conservation centre. The Mongimpi is performed by Kadazan priestesses known as bobohizan in their own language.
The three elderly female bobohizan and their young male apprentice who performed the groundbreaking ceremony are the last of their kind in Sabah. It is not just sun bears that are endangered.
Perhaps if there was more work for bobohizans it might tempt young people into the career and help conserve the culture?
Perhaps one reason that young people are not becoming bobohizan is the increasing distance between urban culture and nature?
Many in the audience at the Mongimpi would not be applying for the job and they expressed distress and distaste at the sight of a healthy cockerel having its throat slit.
This was the first time I had witnessed a sacrifice and I did not find the event as violent as I had imagined. Throughout the preamble the cockerel was quiescent in the hands of the bobohizan. When it’s time came the knife was almost gentle and there was not a squawk, although there was an awkward moment a minute or two later when it tried to come back to life again. ‘Headless chickens’ and all that.
For me what was more upsetting was the condition that I found chickens being kept in when I was looking for the cockerel. The beautiful animal that was sacrificed was provided by a friend of a friend and came direct from a free-range life in a village, happily calling in each day and feeding on whatever distasteful waste was chucked out the back doors.
The animals that I saw lived in cramped squalor, feathers were missing, water and food was mouldy, sun shading inadequate and dead birds were strewn on the floor. Apart from the glaring animal welfare issue, it gave me nightmares about what my food looked like before I eat it.
For the first time in my life I have found myself choosing vegetarian dishes on grounds of principle rather than taste or social obligation. Not that I will be giving up the bacon butties any time soon but I’ll remember the cockerel.
Other people around the Mongimpi circle may believe that the ritual death of an animal is unnecessary. I think it was worthwhile even if only to remind us to treat nature with respect.
Furthermore, I am delighted to hear that the bobohizan reported that the ceremony had been a success and that the offering had been accepted and understood.
Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre To Be Built In Sepilok
Category: BSBCC, sanctuary | Date: Jul 17 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong
July 17, 2009 20:17 PM
Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre To Be Built In Sepilok
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By: Ramjit
–>
SANDAKAN, July 17 (Bernama) — A Borneo sun bear conservation centre will be set up in Sepilok here in an effort to prevent the endangered animal from becoming extinct.
It will be next to the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sepilok, and the ground-breaking ceremony for the project was officiated by state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, here, Friday.
Director of the sun bear conservation centre, Cynthia Ong, said the centre, to be built in three phases, would have facilities including a home that could accommodate 43 sun bears, a visitors’ area, a gallery for exhibits and a natural walkway.
She said two hectares of the centre were located in the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve area, hence allowing the bears to live in a natural environment.
The first phase of the project involves building a home that can take in 27 sun bears and is expected to be ready in six months from now.
Ong said the RM1.3 million needed for the first phase came from the private sector and government agencies.
“We are now trying to raise RM600,000 needed for the second phase and RM900,000 for the third phase of the project,” she added in her speech at the ground-breaking ceremony.
She also said that the setting up of the centre involved the cooperation of the Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department and LEAP (Land Empowerment Animals People), a non-governmental organisation.
– BERNAMA
Culture juxtapose - Kadazan ritualist with chicken offering and the Southeast Scotland Scouts volunteers in their kilts (they played the bagpipes as part of the event)
The breaking of ground by LEAP, SFD, SWD, witnessed by Minister of Tourism, Culture & Environment and Bobohizans (after ritual)
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