Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

Category: conservation, poaching, threats | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

TIGER RESCUE POINTS TO URGENT NEED FOR MORE PATROLS

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The rescue of a tiger from a snare set by poachers near the Gerik-Jeli highway yesterday should set alarm bells ringing for the remaining wild tigers in the Belum-Temengor forests, one of the last strongholds for this species and other mammals in Malaysia. 

The five-year-old male tiger was freed from its snare by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) officers after it was discovered late yesterday by WWF’s Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU), which conducts regular patrols together with PERHILITAN in the area. The tiger has been taken to the Malacca Zoo for treatment. 

The WPU rangers on a routine patrol had earlier detected two men on motorcycles near the site who fled when they saw the WPU rangers approach.  When rangers returned to check the area, they found the tiger with its front right paw caught in a snare. 

The snare had been set on a ridge in a forested area near the Perak-Kelantan border, not too far from the highway. 

The Belum-Temengor forest complex is one of three priority areas identified in the National Tiger Action Plan. It is also part of an area of global priority for Tiger conservation. Yet it is highly vulnerable to encroachment and poaching due to its proximity to the porous Malaysia-Thai border and among the most easily accessible because of the 80-km long Gerik-Jeli highway that cuts across the landscape, providing hundreds of easy entry points for poachers. 

Apart from the PERHILITAN-WPU joint patrols, this vast and wildlife-rich forest complex and its highway are not systematically or thoroughly patrolled, making it an open target for poachers. 

In the past year alone, PERHILITAN and the WPU have also recorded numerous encroachers in Perak’s jungles, particularly near the Belum-Temengor area, with the most recent incident in August, when a Thai national was caught by the police with pangolin scales and agarwood in the forest near the highway. 

PERHILITAN, Police and the WPU have worked together to remove 101 snares and arrest 10 poachers in the last nine months. But there is a need for other government agencies to join in this difficult fight against wildlife crime. 

Research carried out in the area by WWF and TRAFFIC has indicated that the rescued tiger is very likely just one of many that have been poached in the area.  Illegal hunting in the Belum-Temengor area is rampant and the demand for tigers continues to drive criminals into the forest to kill the remaining ones. 

“If the WPU rangers had not spotted the suspected poachers the story might have been very different  for that tiger. We were lucky this time. Who knows how many tigers we have already lost?” said Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma, CEO of WWF-Malaysia. 

“This incident clearly demonstrates the need for a stronger enforcement presence in the Belum-Temengor area. If this isn’t enough of a clarion call for the government to afford more resources to form an anti-poaching Task Force, I don’t know what is,” he added. 

The official estimate of the wild tigers in Peninsular Malaysia is only 500, a sharp decline from 3000 estimated in the 1950s, explained wildlife biologist Dr Kae Kawanishi.  

“Snares kill indiscriminately. This illegal act of cruelty should be condemned by the whole society. Despite the harsh penalty imposed by the law, it has been a major problem to wildlife throughout the country,” said Kae a member of the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers Secretariat. 

“In order for the Malaysia to realize the goal of the National Tiger Action Plan, which is to double the number of wild tigers in the country by the year 2020, poaching cannot be tolerated,” she added. 

“At the rate Tigers are being killed throughout their entire range, they do not stand a chance, but here in Malaysia, there is still hope of saving tigers. It will mean increasing enforcement efforts to protect crucial strongholds such as the Belum-Temengor complex and coming down hard on poachers,” said Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s Regional Acting Director.    

“These poachers are criminals, and are robbing the world of one of the most amazing species to have ever walked the earth”, he said.

The front paw of the tiger caught in the snare.
- Pictures courtesy of WWF Malaysia

Note to Editor:For further information on the incident, kindly contact Puan Shabrina Shariff, Director of Perak Department of Wildlife and National Parks. Email: shabrina@wildlife.gov.my 

For further information on press release and pictures:Sarah Sukor, Communications Officer, Tiger and Rhino Conservation Programme, WWF Malaysia, Tel: 012 3060404, Email: ssara@wwf.org.my  

Elizabeth John, Senior Communications Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Tel: 012 2079790, E-mail: jlizzjohn@yahoo.com

  ==============================================================================Related posting news about this incident:

http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=38664 

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/10tig/Article/index_html

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/5/nation/4843387&sec=nation

==============================================================================  Please Wong’s notes: read more about the poaching and the snaring of wildlife in malaysian rainforest:

http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/10/25/we-need-your-help-to-protect-wildlife-in-malaysia/   

“  Snares are by far any wildlife and conservationists’ nightmare. Snares are easy to make and set, cheap, light to carry, and most importantly, they are effective! You will be amazed with how similar the mechanism of snares across different continents in the world and low long human have been using the same kind of design for snaring wildlife simply because they works. In order to increase the efficiency of these snares, most hunters or poachers would construct a simple fence on the forest floor for kilometers and left little “gap” or “opening” where the loop of the snares is set. When an animal traveling on the forest floor and come across the fence, they tend to follow the fence and funneled to the little gap and they try to across the fence through that little opening where poachers already set the deathly loop on the floor awaited for their kills. As you can imagine, these snares are set by hundreds as they are cheap and easy to carry into the forest interior. What make snares a true nightmare for everyone who care about wildlife is that they do not discriminate what species of wildlife can be their next victim. Willdife as small as a pheasants, mousedeer, pangolins, civets, muntjacts, wild boar, deer, bears, and all the way range to large mammals like rhinos and elephants are some of the common victims of snares. Now is a tiger! 

Tags: conservation, poaching, snaring, sun bear, threats, tiger

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Category: Borneo, conservation, habitat loss, rainforest, threats | Date: Aug 14 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Tags: Borneo, conservation, logging, sun bear habitat

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Category: BSBCC, Volunteers, sanctuary | Date: Jul 27 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Friday July 17^th, 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)

Check out our photo gallery.

Tags: BSBCC, conservation, ground breaking, sun bear

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Category: BSBCC, conservation, education | Date: Jul 06 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

By Wai Pak Ng

On July 2, Sylvia Alsisto from Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre came and asked me to present a talk about sun bear and BSBCC. Of course I am more than happy to do that as I had done that to several groups of volunteer. However, it ended up with a three-day talk to three groups of students. The most challenging part was the audience was ranged from 8 – 17 years old school kids! I have to tell you that the first image that bangs into my minds was a group of “monkey” yelling and jumping here and there!

They were our special guests. 

I was only given a night to prepare the presentation. I have to modified and practice my speech so that the kids won’t get bored with all the science facts and terms. I also invited two guests to my talk who were Winnie and Teddy (toys that I borrowed from Cecilia)! With two of them, I started my introduction and I managed to grab the audience attention!

Participants from the YAWA 6^th International Children’s Conference on the Environment were listen to the sun bears talk at Sepilok.  

The presentation was going smooth. I was pleased as they were no “monkey” in the theatre. In fact, most of the kids were paying their full attention! During the Q and A session, questions raised and I was surprised with a kid who asked: Can we put on artificial claws to those de-claws-bears? I was sad to tell the kids the truth, No, we can not. In fact, their enthusiasms really impress me because these children were really care about our bears! I am sure they will be those who can change the situation. 

Questions were asked during the Q and A session. You can tell they want to know more about sun bear and want to help them. 

After the talk, I brought the kids to have a closer look of our sun bears. They even have the chance to sit inside a small iron cage where Susie the bear was kept before. To them, it was also a new experience and opportunity to create their empathy, and get to understand our very own local wildlife, our sun bear situation and their plight.   

One of the kids told me: It was fun to sit in the cage, but not all the time, not even more than a minute! She wants freedom and she knows the bears do as well.

I think they will definitely understand what space really mean. 

By giving this presentation, I have learnt so much from the kids. It reminds me the important of environment education to our young generation as well as other elders. Again, let hope our centre can be set up earlier, so that the public can know more about our bears and love our wildlife and their environment. Notes: YAWA 6^th International Children’s Conference on the Environment were organized by Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam, (Children’s Environmental Heritage Foundation) and Sabah Environmental Education Network (SEEN), at Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok, from 1^st – 5^th June 2009.

Tags: BSBCC, conservation, education, sun bear

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Category: Research, Siew Te Wong, education | Date: Jun 25 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

It all begins at the fall of 1989 when I first came to Taiwan from Malaysia to continue by college education. I recalled it was the second day of my college life in National Pingtung Agriculture College when I saw the poster of Bird Watching Club (BWC), posted at the notice board of the 1^st Restaurant, announcing its first meeting of the semester and recruitment for new members. The poster caught my attention because of the word “Bird”. At that time, I never knew there was an activity call “bird watching”. What I did know about birds was keeping cage birds for amusing or bird singing, the hobby that I have been doing for few years at that time-keeping and breeding birds. The first impression after seeing that poster was “what a COOL student club!” As always, the first feeling toward something is always the right of choice: I am going to join them!

Sure enough, Bird Watching Club at National Pingtung Agriculture College, which later upgrade to National Pingtung Polytechnic Institute, and finally Nation Pingtung University of Science and Technology, has become an important part of my two years college’s life in Taiwan. I saw and recognized my first brown shrike during a morning bird watching activity here in the campus; I did the first bird interpretation for visitors, raptor count and New Year Bird Count at Kenting National Park in southern tip of Taiwan; and get to know Prof. Kurtis Pei who was the advisor of the BWC, and of course, fallen in love with Sun Chia-Chien, my wife, all under the activities and name of BWC.

We called ourselves “Bird People” or “birders”. We carry a pair of binoculars and spotting scope wherever we were going and trying to identify every single feathered creature we saw. Through my binoculars, I saw, learned, and appreciated the beauty of nature and our feathered friends, and what the Creator has given to this world to make it more colorful and joyful. However, also through the same pair of binoculars, I saw the unlawful activities of mist netting and poaching of birds. That was the first time I was introduced to the word “conservation” and later on, “endangered species”, and then “wildlife research”.

My interest on these three topics multiplied during the two years I worked as research assistant for Prof. Pei, involving various research projects including wildlife surveys, radio-telemetry study of barking deer at Little Ghost Lake area, camera trapping, and also taking care of orangutans and other endangered species at the newly established Pingtung Rescue Center for Endangered Species.

In 1994, I quitted Pei’s lab and further continue my education majoring in Wildlife Biology at University of Montana, USA. It was considered as a “difficult task” for many people from ordinary Asian family. The same year, I met my then future academic advisor, Dr. Christopher Servheen, who was looking for a Malaysian student to conduct an ecological study on sun bears. I took the challenge and later became a mission. In 1998, I stated the field work for my M.Sc. project, studying the ecology of Malayan sun bears in Danum Valley, a lowland rainforest of Borneo. For the first time, the study revealed the mysterious life history of this little known bear and many ecological aspects of Bornean rainforest. The study did answered what I plan to answer at the first place. However, it also generated a series of desperate questions and urgent needs to do more conservation and research works for sun bears in Southeast Asia: sun bears remain the least known bears and one of least studied large mammal in Southeast Asia. Their habitat, the lowland tropical forest, is disappearing at alarming rate due to illegal and unsustainable logging, human development, and large-scale conversion to agriculture land, especially into oil-palm plantation in Malaysia and Indonesia. 

In 2002, I started my doctorate program at the same university. In view of there were so much unknown about sun bears and issue with logging, I decided to study the effects of logging on sun bears and bearded pigs at Danum Valley, the same study area where I did my MSc study in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo. The three years of field started in 2005 and ended in 2008. Like most studies on large mammals, the fieldwork has face tremendous challenges and difficulties. We sweated, bled, cried, and even lost our life working in one of the harshest place on the planet.

Although the focus of my studies was on wild sun bears, I never forgot about the unfortunate condition for captive sun bears that I came across over the years. These captive sun bears were all in desperate needs of help from us. These bears were kept as pets because of their cuteness when small and relatively small size. They were all kept in small cages, unhygienic environment, and in some places were completely disgusting! Some were cubs, some were full grown adults, and some were old individuals. All of them suffered from serious stereotypic behavior, pacing all day long if there were any room in their tiny cage for them to pace. Seeing these bears in these captive conditions were completely heartbroken. However, I choose to find them, see more of them, and learn more about the stories behind them. This is how the idea of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, BSBCC, first came in to my mind. BSBCC is the conservation project that I am working now in Sabah (http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/). The centre aim to conserve, to research, to introduce and to educate the public about sun bears and their plights. In short, BSBCC is one of the very first project in the world to help sun bear and to raise awareness to conserve this forgotten bear species.

Sun bear like most wildlife is forest dependent species. They simply cannot survive outside the forest. My experience working in Southeast Asia shows desperate situation for the continuation and survival of both wildlife and local forests. Much more work is needed to ensure the long-term survival of the native wildlife and forests. In many parts of Southeast Asia, the tropical forests are disappearing rapidly to a point where too late to do anything. In contrast, due to the economy and political stability, Malaysia still has a chance for conservationists to save the last stronghold of Southeast Asian rainforests and wildlife. We need distinguished biologists to train local students as conservationists and biologists, to educate public and government on the importance of conservation, and to study the flora and fauna in order to understand better its functions. I am and I was, trained as an “animal expert” or wildlife biologist for all these years. I hope to use these knowledge and training to do a great job in my career to conserve wildlife and forests.

The conservation history of Taiwan has come from a long way from a country where the word “conservation” and “animal welfare” never seem to exist about 20 years ago when I first came to Taiwan, to a conservation model country in Asia. Like my own experience in conservation, it all begin from bird watching and the efforts of “bird people” growing big and strong. I am honored and proud to be a family member of Bird Watching Club, which celebrates her 30^th anniversary last year. Today, bird watching no longer simply a “watching birds” activity. In stead, it has become an important starting point to promote conservation, improve environmental quality, and conserve wildlife and wildlife habitat. So next time when we do bird watching with a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope, make sure that we see more than just the birds in the scope. We should see what lies beyond the pretty birds; we should see the wildlife habitats, the environment, and future of their kind and our own kind and how can we do to bring a better future for ALL of us! Lastly, we all should take actions accordingly. We have only one planet, one life, and one time to make things right.

Please join me. Together, we can make a difference!

Tags: bird watching, conservation, Siew Te Wong, sun bear

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Category: BSBCC, captivity, sanctuary | Date: Jun 06 2009 | By: Siew Te Wong

Two endangered Bornean sun bear cubs have been introduced at the San Diego Zoo. The twin cubs were born at the zoo on Oct. 25 and made their public debut on last March 17. Read more about them at http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2009/03/19/endangered-bornean-sun-bear-cubs-make-public-debut-at-san-diego-zoo/.

The mother of the twins, Marcella, came from our facility at Sepilok, Sabah  almost 10 years ago. She has been a good mother and produced few cubs since she moved to San Diego Zoo. All of the Bornean sun bears in US zoo were all originated from Sabah at Sepilok before we established Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. We hope they could be the ambassadors for their own kind in US to raise awareness and tell people across the world who came to see them in US’s zoos about their stories and plights.  

Tags: conservation, cubs, sun bear

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