Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Category: BSBCC, captivity, conservation, education, sanctuary | Date: Oct 06 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

A Sun Bear IS NOT a Panda—

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. 

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Mini Zoo, Sabah, sun bear

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Category: BSBCC, Fund raising | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

A Beary Wonderful World Sun Bear Conservation

For immediate release: 5 Oct 2009  

Tabin Wildlife Resort is inviting everyone to join its effort in promoting Sun Bear conservation by taking part in its latest campaign “A Beary Wonderful World”.

Tabin Wildlife Resort will donate RM100 to the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre for the purchase of each 3 Days 2 Nights Tabin tour program for visits between October and December 2009.  On top of that, each guest will get a Sun Bear plush toy in return for the good deed.

Borneo is home to the world’s smallest bear species, the Malayan Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus).  With forest degradation and development, living space available for the Sun Bear is fast reducing.  Sun bear populations are also threatened by illegal hunting and poaching for food and medicines, to prevent damage to crops and villages, and to capture small cubs for the pet trade.  The protected forest of Tabin Wildlife Reserve is one of the places where the Sun Bear can find refuge and hopefully thrive. Footprints of this endangered animal have been seen around the Lipad Mud Volcano, not far from Tabin Wildlife Resort.

The objectives of BSBCC, located at Sepilok near Sandakan, are to provide improved facilities for the bears, promote public awareness, education and research and wherever possible, to rehabilitate bears back into the wild.

For further information, contactTabin Wildlife Holidays Sdn Bhd
Tel: 60 88 267266

Email: enquiry@tbainwildlife.com.my
www.tabinwildlife.com.my

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Sabah, sun bear, Tabon Wildlife Resort

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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

http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/outdoors/outdoors_article/researcher_shines_light_on_forgotten_species/3970

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

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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.

Tags: BAT, Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Camp International, Raleigh, Sabah, scouts, sun bear

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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.

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Lok Kawi Zoo, Sabah, sun bear

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Category: BSBCC, captivity | Date: Sep 12 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

By Wai Pak Ng

On the 27^th August, I received an emergency order to go to Kota Kinabalu with the Sepilok senior ranger, Elis, to exchange a bear from our centre with a pregnant bear named Manis from Lok Kawi Zoo. The pregnant bear has to be taken care in BSBCC with the proper birthing den and 24 hours CCTV recording. Because of the limited space we have at BSBCC, one bear from BSBCC has to exchange with the zoo for the female bear. We have chosen Gutuk, the oldest male bear in BSBCC. 

Early in that morning, Dr Cecilia, Elis and I were checking on Gutuk health condition before we put him to the translocation cage. He was chosen because he cannot to be released to the forest due to his weak eyesight and old age.   

The 8 hours long journey from Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu went well. We have to stop several times to check on Gutuk’s condition, fed and watered him. Luckily, it was not a sunny day; in fact it rained in the afternoon. Gutuk looked fine, but for sure it must be tiring for him and both of us as well.

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Lok Kawi Zoo, Sabah, sun bear

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Category: BAT-Bornean Action Teams, BSBCC, Volunteers | Date: Sep 06 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

 By Ian Hall posted at http://arkitrek.com/http:/arkitrek.com/scottish-scouts-at-bsbcc/

 As you may know, wild animals in captivity need constant enrichment to reduce boredom and stereotypic behaviour. Last month we provided the bears at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre with a daily parade of Scottish Scouts for their amusement and benefit.To the bears’ frustration the first thing that the Scouts did was to put up a tarpaulin fence so that they couldn’t see what was going on. They could still peer around the side though and from ovehearing the camaraderie could get a good idea of what was going on.

 First there was a lot of digging interrupted by much repose in front of a cooling fan. The result was strange serpentine trench that twisted away from the bear’s house in either direction.

Incomprehensibly, to the bears, over the next week or so a wire mesh frame emerged from the trench to a height of two metres. Luckily the orang-utans didn’t mistake it for a playground.

At one point after the second week the hubbub was interrupted briefly by a loud clanking and rumbling and clouds of black smoke rising from behind the tarpaulin. A diesel cement mixer was given a test run.

Shortly after that an overnight squall demolished the tarpaulin and allowed some of the bears a sneak peak at lorries arriving to deliver ten tonnes of sand and 100 bags of cement.

Then late one afternoon, just when the bears were waking from their afternoon nap and looking forward to some evening peace and quiet, the cement mixer spluttered and banged to life. Moments later a second mixer joined the fray.

Up until now no more than 12 different voices could be heard around the bear house at any one time. On this evening there were over 50. Something big was afoot.

Dusk fell and through her chink in the fence, Suria Bear could see the scouts plastering a dark grey sludge onto the wire mesh frame. Suria swung back and forth across the roof of her cage; Kuamut Bear barked an inquiry and Susie Bear performed acrobatics with her tyre swing.

On their first day’s induction the Scouts would have been delighted by this display but this evening their attention was elsewhere.

 Night fell and rows of fluorescent lights hung on wires flickered into life.

The concrete mixers roared and a chain of wheelbarrows and buckets sprung into action to distribute the grey sludge.

Everything was going so well until the water tap ran dry. Even the emergency tap jealously guarded by the fearsome Om Bear refused to yield more than a dribble.

“Surely now” thought the bears, “the Scouts will give up this ridiculous exercise and leave us in peace?”

But the Scouts proved to be just as tenacious as the wild animals that they were working so enthusiastically to help. To their disappointment the bears’ beloved keeper Wai Pak was despatched to find water in his truck with a 40gallon drum perched in the back.
 With a new water supply the cement mixer that had been pessimistically killed prior to dinner spluttered defiantly back to life.

Until four o’clock in the morning they toiled. Some fell by the wayside and found comfort on piles of sand, on dusty floors or on whatever old rope they could lay their head. The brave few battled on but it was clear that the job would not be done in one night.

The infernal machines were silenced and cleaned and 50 weary souls trudged proudly home to sleep. The forest edge rejoiced, the insects once more the loudest thing and a chestnut-necklaced partridge calling.

The next night they returned, with more experience and more wisdom and the same determination to complete the job.

The wall that had been dark grey was now light and rigid, one side smoothed and caressed by 50 pairs of gloved hands, the other side rough and splodged with hexagon chicken mesh shaped extrusions.

 Now accustomed to the disturbance the bears seemed more relaxed. Old Gutuk Bear sprawled legs akimbo in his sleeping basket and the three girls; Cerah, Lawa and Jelita amicably shared their two baskets.

The bears were starting to get the gist now; the Scouts were making the second side of the wall smooth like the first and polishing off the protruberances that would later form homes for plants.

By midnight it was all over and the recently completed wall hung with wet blankets to slow down the curing of the cement.

Then on the final morning it all became clear. The tarpaulin was removed and the bears found that there was now a screen wall between their dens and their future visitors. The only people to disturb their afternoon naps would be those that wake them up with bowls of food at tea time. Their only view would be of the forest that would one day become their home again.

Huge thanks to all the Southeast Scotland Scouts. They were given a big job made more challenging with unpredictable logistical constraints and yet they pulled through and delivered the goods.

Not only did they work diligently and enthusiastically but the icing on the cake was that they also came up with a donation of seven thousand Malaysian ringgit in hard cash! That was enough money to pay for all the materials and logistical costs of constructing the screen wall.

By the time the new BSBCC visitor centre is open to the public next year, the wall will be planted up with local epiphytic plants and become a signature feature of the Centre.

You can also read about the Scottish Scouts’ Borneo expedition in their own words.

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Sabah, scouts, sun bear

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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.

Tags: Bornean Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Siew Te Wong, suckling, sun bear

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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

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Category: BAT-Bornean Action Teams, BSBCC | Date: Aug 10 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

by Jungle Bob (BATs volunteer)

After a few hiccups relating to helicopter availability and some frantic preparation by Sylvia Alisto and her team it finally came together. At 9.40 in the morning two helicopters arrived at Sepilok and the visit of one of the World’s most prominent former leaders was on.Tony Blair, together with his family and security staff, had arrived and began his visit to the Orang-utan Sanctuary and Sun Bear project (BSBCC).The visit began with a presentation on the Orang-utans and then a guided walk to Platform four where the party trekked along the boardwalk and enjoyed the attentions of the primates. Tony actually enjoyed the attention of a leech on his ankle which I assured him was ‘good luck’ and a souvenir of Sabah. 

They then visited the juvenile Orang-utans in the nursery area. At about 1pm they were given a presentation on the Sun Bears by Wai Pak and myself. They were very interested and asked lots of questions. Cherie Blair (Tony’s wife) was particularly fascinated and keen to get lots of information about the bears.

Wai Pak was in full enthusiastic flow as he showed them the slide show and explained the habitat depletion, threats to the bears and how they live, eat and nest. Taking an opportunity not often presented I asked Tony if he wouldn’t mind signing a BSBCC Bats t-shirt for us to help with fund raising. He kindly agreed and wrote ‘Good Luck. ‘tis a worthy cause’ and signed his name.

The meeting was relaxed and informal and set the trend for the remainder of his visit. We walked as a group up to see the bears where they spent about half an hour asking more questions and seeing the bears up close.

Raleigh international staff and a team of young people were working nearby so he took some time out to chat to them and have his photo taken with them. He viewed the work completed so far and seemed very impressed at what the volunteers had achieved.

During his visit most of the volunteers were at lunch and were hugely disappointed to have missed it.  However, his generosity was again evident whilst having his own lunch, and he agreed to leave it to come and speak to them. There was plenty of warm banter, interest and support given to the West Lancashire Scout group and Camps International team. Lots more photos were posed for and hands shaken. The smiling faces in the photos are testament to how much everyone enjoyed themselves.

I was very impressed with his enthusiasm and patience. This was a valuable visit for the purposes of the Sun Bear profile carried out by a genuine warm hearted and sociable former world leader and was enjoyed by everyone.

I received some feedback from their senior security officer after they had arrived back in KK. He said the ‘Blairs’ had had a ‘brilliant day’.I donated BSBCC T-shirts to Tony Blair, Cherie Blair and two of the children and Sylvia gave them some souvenirs of their visit. I will make sure that they also receive copies of the photographs taken on the day so that they remember us and perhaps they will take me up on my offer of getting one or more of their children to come and work for us as volunteer Bat’s!

Tags: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, Releigh, sun bear, Tony Blairs, VIP visit, Wai Pak, West Lancashire Scouts

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