Category: Uncategorized | Date: Dec 27 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas spending quality time with your family and friends. As I am about to wonder what would be the topic of my next blog, I found another disturbing news from Malaysia: another sun bear was poached, cut into pieces, and the wildlife authority nailed the poacher. It is truly sad every time I come across this kind of news. Please read my blogs about poaching activities in Malaysia to learn more about the desperate issue. In addition, please help us sign a petition that design to help to reduce poaching in this country.

 As I said over and over again, I strongly believe that every successful raid of a poaching case represent a staggering number of poaching cases that no one know. We need to act now to stop this kind of killing. Poaching and consuming of game meat is not a Malaysian culture and the poaching of wildlife is absolutely not necessary and should be stop before it went out of control. Please help us to stop wildlife being killed for no reason and please help us to stop sun bear being poached for whatever reason. I really hope BSBCC can do more to educate the public about sun bear so to reduce this kind of killing of sun bear can keep in minimum if not complete stopped. I hope one day we will never hear of any sun bear being poached in this country because local people knows more about them and start to protect them, and not because of there are no sun bear in this country anymore!   

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http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/25/nation/2891783&sec=nation

Thursday December 25, 2008

Caught with bear meat in fridge

By HAH FOONG LIAN

IPOH: A rubber tapper has been detained for allegedly poaching an endangered Malayan sun bear in the wild for his own consumption.

The 56-year-old tapper, who has a wild boar trading permit for the past three years, was arrested following a tip-off to the Selangor Wildlife and National Parks Department.

Grisly find: Shabrina and Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department officer Sufian Ahmad (left) checking the carcass of the sun bear at the department’s office in Ipoh yesterday.

Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department director Shabrina Shariff said her officers raided the rubber tapper’s home at Jalan Ketoyong in Tanjung Malim at 11am on Tuesday after receiving information from her Selangor counterpart.

“We found the head and four limbs of the protected animal in a refrigerator.

“There was also 15kg of the animal meat stored in a plastic bag in the freezer,” she said at her office here yesterday.

She added that pellet marks from a shotgun could be seen on the animal’s head.

Shabrina said she believed that the Malayan sun bear was an adult animal weighing some 95kg but its sex could not be determined because all its organs were removed.

The suspect, she said, had told her officers that he had poached the endangered sun bear for his own consumption.

Explaining that the sun bear was a protected animal, Shabrina added that the general belief was that the sun bear was used as an aphrodisiac for men and that its meat fetched some RM200 per kg.

She said her officers had lodged a police report and the suspect would be prosecuted under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972/76.

The case would be mentioned in court next year, she added.

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 18 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/11/18/southneast/2563985

Tuesday November 18, 2008

Centre to help preserve Sabah’s sun bears

By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Having established itself as home for wildlife such as the orang utan, Sumatran rhino, Borneo pygmy elephant and proboscis monkey, Sabah intends to give more attention to its population of sun bears.

Noting that Sabah’s sun bears were one of the world’s eight bear species, Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman said the state wanted to protect the mammal, which was considered a unique species.

 Needing care: File photo of sun bear researcher Wong Siew Te handling a sun bear in the cage at Sepilok near Sandakan.

“The task for us is to raise awareness on this little-known animal,” he said at a fund-raising event here recently for the establishment of a RM1.2mil sun-bear rehabilitation and conservation centre in Sepilok, Sandakan.

He said that research had shown that Borneo, particularly Sabah, was the last habitat for sun bears.

He said that conservation efforts must include getting them back into the wild.

The centre will be the first of its kind in Asia.

It is being set up jointly by the state’s wildlife and forestry departments and non-governmental organisation Land Empowerment Animals People, which organised the fund-raising event featuring Malaysian artistes.

Musa said the centre would provide opportunities for research on the animals apart from serving as a focal point for sun bear studies in Asia.

He said the centre could be developed as an educational and awareness facility as it was located next to the Sepilok orang utan rehabilitation centre and the Rainforest Discovery Centre.

He said the effort was another example of the close cooperation between state agencies and NGOs.

Musa said that similar efforts in the past had resulted in studies on Sabah’s flora and fauna and how to protect them

6 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 14 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Sabah Govt Pledges Commitment To Protect Rare Sun Bear          KOTA KINABALU, Nov 14 (Bernama) — The Sabah government Friday night pledged its firm commitment for the protection and conservation of its precious wildlife heritage, particularly the rare sun bear. Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the phasing out of logging activities at the Ulu Segama and Malua forest reserves at the end of last year and the declaration of the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain as a wildlife sanctuary were efforts in this direction. He said many people in the state were not aware that Sabah was home to one of the eight bear species found worldwide and the last stronghold of the sun bear. “Our ultimate goal is to put the (sun bear) species back into the wild. Perhaps it is time to give it the same attention we give to Sabah’s other wildlife such as the orang utan, the Borneo pygmy elephant, the proboscis monkey and the Sumatran rhinoceros. “There is a big task ahead to raise awareness on this little-known mammal and one way of doing this is to promote the sun bear as a flagship species,” he said in his speech at the “Bear Necessities” fund-raising event for the Bornean Sun Bear, here. Musa said there was great potential for raising the profile of this neglected animal and, at the same time, using it as an ambassador for further protection of rainforest habitats. In this respect, he said, the setting up of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sandakan was timely as it would provide the opportunity for furthering this scientific research as well as serve as a focal point for sun bear studies in the region. Musa said the new centre also had the potential to be developed as an educational and awareness centre given its location next to the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre and the Rainforest Discovery Centre. Apart from that, the conservation centre could lend support to the state’s tourism efforts and would become another eco-tourism destination for both local and international visitors, he said. – BERNAMA

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/news_lite.php?id=371886

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized, poaching | Date: Nov 09 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

Wanton destruction

By Sheila Rahman     November 07, 2008      Categories: News

A rare Sunda clouded leopard was found dead – its body and face pumped with dozens of shotgun pellets. For no apparent reason, it appears, since the carcass was left intact. But this was no ordinary leopard; it was Mr Horseshoe, so called because of a marking on the left side of its body, in the shape of the lucky charm that obviously wasn’t.

SHOOT FOR WHAT? Research assistant Remmy Mirus with the carcass of the rare Sunda clouded leopard.

The animal was being studied for about a year by Andy Hearn and Joanna Ross, who run the Bornean Wild Cat and Clouded Leopard Project (http://borneanwildcat.blogspot.com), after being “camera captured” and identified as a recently discovered species, separate from the peninsula’s clouded leopard.

“Sad indeed. It was shot at close range and left there. Poachers or hunters are killing animals for no reason,” said Wong Siew Te, who found Mr Horseshoe in November last year while doing research at the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, about 70km from Tawau in Sabah. He is chief executive officer of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre being built in Sandakan.

Between then and September this year, Wong has come across more random acts of atrocities against wildlife in the area, at a frequency that is worrying him and others.

Conservationists, and the authorities too such as the Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department and NGOs such as Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), at a meeting in April this year confirmed this problem as “serious”, that the poachers were getting more aggressive and threatening wildlife rangers too.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Noor Rashid Ibrahim, who chaired the meeting, said the discussion was held to establish how police could assist in the enforcement and prevention of poaching and illegal hunting.

 KILLED FOR WHAT? Wong with a female Bornean pygmy elephant, which probably died a “slow death” from gangrenous infection from 13 bullet wounds

Three weeks ago, the Sabah Wildlife Department said wildlife rangers were not only finding increasing numbers of Borneo pygmy elephants being injured or killed by snares set by poorly paid oil palm plantation workers but also other wildlife, including orang utan, monkeys, deer and boar.

The snares are usually set by oil palm plantation workers wanting to supplement their income by selling boar and deer meat to restaurants or eating it themselves. However, elephants too stumble into the traps, resulting in injury that can lead to infection and death, Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu said.

The department’s chief field veterinarian, Dr Senthilvel Nathan, said it would be difficult to isolate and treat injured elephants and the herd could turn aggressive against humans.

Human-wildlife conflict is a rising problem throughout Malaysia, where the major cause of the problem is the destruction of large tracts of wildlife habitat for industrial oil palm plantations.

SNARED FOR WHAT? A sun bear that managed to struggle free from a snare but suffered a cut through its arm, and a dislocated shoulder. Its chances of survival were very slim

“While habitat destruction is by far the most important threat to the wildlife in Malaysia, poaching and illegal killing of wildlife can easily wipe out the small local populations living in the fragmented landscape,” Wong said, adding that wildlife law and enforcement urgently needed to be strengthened, and education and conservation awareness strongly promoted.

“I never get it – why in the world would anyone want to do this kind of killing. I strongly believe that what we are seeing and hearing represents the tip of an iceberg. There are many more animals being killed out there,” he added.

7 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 03 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

I am still here. Here mean still on the surface of the Earth! Is just that I am away from Sabah for the past two weeks or so. Here is an update for what’s going on:

After the operation to remove the lipoma in me late last month, I recovered really well from the surgery. The big next thing on my agenda was to rapped up and pack up my work in Sabah for the past three years, and arranging and planning for the BSBCC project, because I am leaving Sabah to Montana, USA, to continue my very last stage of my doctorate program. The first part of the journey started by traveling from Sabah to Taiwan in mid July to meet up with my family.

Family? Yes, I do have my own family. Yes, I am married. Not only that, I am married  with 2 lovely daughters. Not many people think that I am married with two lovely daughters as a field biologist chasing bears and pigs in the forest. Yes, I am married with two daughters! Because of I am married with two daughters and have to chase bears and pigs in the forest, I cannot do that in the forest at the same nursing my two months old daughter, Evelyn at that time (early 2005). So I left my family in Taiwan (my wife, Chia-Chien, is a Taiwanese). Yes, you can say that I abandon my wife and daughters for three and a half years, but no, I did not abandon them, but being separated from them. Over the past three and a half years it was a not easy time for all of us as a family I have to say. But not, after three and a half year, the good news is: “daddy coming back!!”

So, over the past two weeks I am in Taipei, Taiwan, a big city of forest that made from tall concrete buildings, fill with people and traffics. We get ourselves ready for the next stage of the journey and next stage in out life: traveling to Montana, USA, and back to my campus life in University of Montana.

Now we all pack up and I am ready with eight 23-kg suitcases, 6 carry-on, two kids, and a lovely wife. The second stage of journey will start in few hours time. We will fly from Taipei to LA, then transit in Salt Lake City, and finally Missoula, after close to 24 hours journey. Wish me luck!    

12 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 03 2008 | By: Siew Te Wong

It seems that the blog was silent for some times. Thus, I was told to write some bears’ stories in Sepilok while Wong is away for a while at the moment. Of course I am more than willing to share my experiences that I learnt from the bears with our dearest readers. Before I go any further, I think I should give a brief self-introduction to every one who read this blog. I am Wai Pak, from Perak, one of the states that located in West Malaysia. I have been followed Mr. Wong for one and a half year, worked as a field assistant under his Bornean Sun Bear and Bearded Pig Research and Conservation Project in Danum Valley Field Centre, Sabah.  In the end of April this year, I followed Wong to Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre where there are some bears keep in enclosures, (and also the place where BSBCC going to be set up). To be honest, for someone who does not taking care of any pets before, and now have to deal with sun bears, which are big carnivore with long sharp claws and canines, no doubt is a real big challenge for me! However, as I promised to Wong, I am willing to learn from the beginning. So, I will not give up easily without trying my best. Thanks to the staffs in Sepilok, Mr. Elis and Mr. Rosley. With their patient and guidance, I managed to overcome my tedious period and now I am getting used to the daily chores in the existing bear house. Cleaning feces and making sure the cleanliness of the enclosures is one of the most important duties (although it is a shitty, sweaty and tiring job, I should admit). Each time I finished the cleaning, I feel so great as I know the bears can have a cleaner place to hang around.  Preparing bear food is another interesting part in the bear house. Besides the essential food sources such as rice porridge and dog food, it is all depend on our creativity to prepare a delicious and balance meal for the bears. Hmm, I think this is a very big topic to share with you, so I decided to talk about it in the future. I am glad that I am lucky enough to be given the chance to work with the sun bears. This is something that I have never worked before and it is absolutely a meaningful thing that had enriched my life. After three months living together with the bears, I have had built up a closer relation to every sun bears in Sepilok. We do have communications. They do not bark at me anymore compare to the first week I reached. I know we had build up trust to each other. Since this is my first post in this blog, I hope you enjoy reading and please kindly leave your comments or suggestions here. If you want to know more about the stories between our lovely bears and me, please wait for my next post:  Story of the sun bear keeper part II.  

9 responses so far