http://www.thesundaily.my/news/355388

Posted on 20 April 2012 – 11:00am
Last updated on 20 April 2012 – 11:06am

Indra

NATIONAL Geographic Channel (NGC), FOX International Channels’ (FIC) flagship channel in the factual genre, has again been selected as a major platform to help Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) promote Malaysia as a top travel destination in Asia. Five years after the first installment of the eco-travel documentary, Malaysian Journey, was broadcast on National Geographic Channel, MTPB signed up for another installment, which will focus on the country’s beautiful rainforests.

Called Malaysian Journey: Rainforest, the new installment will be presented by Hollywood star and martial artist Jason Scott Lee, and will start airing on April 21 on NGC’s global network.

“FOX International Channels’ work with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board has again led to a fantastic program that will appeal to viewers of National Geographic Channel around the world and in Malaysia,” said Basil Chua, Director and Territory Head of Malaysia at FOX International Channels, “Malaysia has captivating natural wonders and this new installment of Malaysian Journey will help entertain and educate audiences across a wide range of audience demographics. We are proud to partner with our PayTV partner, Astro to premiere the documentary exclusively on National Geographic Channel, Astro Channel 553.”

This year’s installment of Malaysian Journey will focus primarily on Malaysia’s famous rainforest regions. Hutan, a one-hour special, will feature the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, Taman Negara National Park, Tasik Kenyir Lake, Kuching, Gunung Mulu National Park and the Bornean Sun Bear Conversation Center in Sabah. The programs will be presented and hosted by Hollywood star and martial artist Jason Scott Lee, who also presented the first installment of Malaysian Journey in 2007. In the first installment of the program, Lee documented his hunts with the Semelais of Pahang, Silat sessions from a local master, life with the Rungus tribe in Sabah as well as life with fishermen on the Langkawi archipelago.

“Malaysia’s flora and fauna is mesmerizing,” said Lee. “I’m honored and thankful to National Geographic Channel for selecting me again for this second installment of Malaysian Journey. Viewers around the world will be able to see the beauty that Malaysia has to offer and the hospitality of the people from this country.”

Lee, who is keenly remembered for his lead role in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, is a fervent environmentalist and conservationist. He shunned the lights of Hollywood and now resides on a 25-acre taro farm in Hawaii. There, he lives out his environmental beliefs of responsible farming and eating what he grows.–National Geographic Channel

 

Malaysian Journey with Jason Scott Lee – Rainforests (Episode 2) premieres exclusively on National Geographic Channel (Astro CH 553) on April 21, 2012. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL

 Read more about this program at: http://natgeotv.com/asia/malaysian-journey/about

 The program will be repeated again on

 Thursday 26 April 2012 at 20:00 – National Geographic Channel

 Thursday 3 May 2012 at 14:20 – National Geographic Channel

Read more about the news on Jason visited BSBCC http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2011/10/05/jason-scott-lee-loves-sun-bears-how-about-you/

Text By Siew Te Wong

Photos by Chris Bray

By now you should at least know what a sun bear look like. If not, here is a good chance for you to learn and see how they look like, how pretty they are, and how special these little known bear species are.

Chris Bray (http://www.chrisbray.net/) is on assignment to photograph and write about the Bornean’s rarest animals including the sun bears. He visited us yesterday and today, and took the following photos of our rescued sun bears at BSBCC.

Ladies and gentleman, I present you the Bornean sun bears, the forgotten bears!

The Sun Bear - the 'forgotten bear' - the smallest and least known of the 8 bear species - needs our help! One of 25 rescued sun bears at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre merrily enjoying a taste of life in the outdoors - Sepilok, Sabah,

Siew Te Wong (world expert on Sun Bears, who founded this conservation centre), Chris, and Wai Pak - part of the amazing Sun Bear Team - Sabah, Borneo. www.ChrisBray.net

Thanks Chris! Great job on these photos!

By Siew Te Wong

I am humbled and honored to have been select as one of the 40 Wildlife Heroes across the world who featured in the Book “Wildlife Heroes: 40 Leading Conservationists and the Animals They Are Committed to Saving.”

Thank you the authors of the book, Julie Scardina and Jeff Flocken for your kindness to feature me and my work on sun bears in this book.

Thank you all of you who supported and helped me over the years, and keep supporting and helping on our work on sun bears.

Without your support, I would not be what I am today.

Without your help, we would not be achieving what we have achieved today.

Together we can, we have, and we will make a different!

 Thank you all!

Happy belated New Year to all readers, fans and supporters of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. As we officially say goodbye to the year 2010, we are also welcoming the new year of 2011 with new plans, new hopes and new dreams at the same time!

I have kept my promise that I made in 2004 to the caged sun bears by founding the BSBCC with proper facilities and care for the sun bears. At that time, the situation for the captive sun bears in Sabah was very poor and help was needed urgently to improve the desperate condition of these animals. However, this “help”- funding, human resources, government permits, etc., were not easy to come by. I am most grateful to Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department, and LEAP who gave me the full support to conduct this ambitious project. With the help from these three key agencies and organizations, plus the enormous help from so many parties and individuals, the lone crusade to help sun bears grew to become a team of forces to save the sun bear. Together, we made the impossible become possible.

Helpless, hopeless, caged sun bears are victims of human greed and needs for more natural resources.

BSBCC achieved its first goal last year by completing the construction of the first bear house and 4 forest enclosures. We moved the existing 12 bears from our old bear house to the new bear house with forest enclosures. All of these bears finally have the chance to walk in the forest, dig the soil, climb the trees, feed on termites, things that sun bears do in the wild. We later rescued an additional 9 bears, filling up our carrying capacity quickly.

Suria resting peacefully on tree in her forest enclosure.

Fortunately, our good works continue to receive recognition and support. Last November, the Malaysia Federal Government decided to fund the construction of Phase 2 and Phase 3 through help from the Sabah Wildlife Department. This great news means that we now have the full funding to complete the construction of the second bear house, additional 4 forest enclosures, visitor facilities (forest broad walk, visitor gallery, & observation platform) and refurbishment of the office and staff room. In short, we WILL set up the centre according to our ambitious plan and we WILL continue our hard work to save and help more sun bears and continue to let the world know about this little bear species that needs help. The preparation for Phases 2 and 3 has been ongoing over the last two months and hopefully the construction itself can begin soon. The plan is to have the construction completed by early 2012 and officially open to the public soon after.

Construction building plan for 2011 (blue) and new forest enclosures (green)

Schematic diagrams of the observation platform for visitors to view sun bears

Besides the construction to complete the building phase of BSBCC, several important missions will be underway in 2011. I will report for duty and manage BSBCC on site as my full time job on February 14th. My presence on site will reduce the heavy burden on Wai Pak and let him take a breath. We will begin plans for the reintroduction stage of a few of our rescued bears- surveying potential release sites, recruit field crews, and fund raising (as the reintroduction of sun bears back to the forest is very costly and time consuming). We will also continue to rescue and help more caged sun bears, conduct more studies on sun bears, and continue to educate people about the plight of sun bears locally, nationally and internationally. These tasks may sound ambitious. However, looking at the desperate situation faced by these bears, we have no choice but to lay out an ambitious plan and continue to work very hard to achieve our tasks.

 I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support in many ways over the past two years. Many of you have helped us raise funds, spread the word, raise awareness, take care of our bears, volunteering at BSBCC, and in many other ways. Bit by bit, piece by piece, there is no better example to show other than the combination of your help has made this project possible and create a better future for the sun bears.

 I hope all of you can continue to help us in this coming year!

Wong

Siew Te Wong, M.Sc.
CEO and Founder,
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre
email: wongsiew@hotmail.com

http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/
http://www.leapspiral.org/content/project07.php
http://wongsiewte.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/BSBCC

http://www.causes.com/causes/95651

http://twitter.com/BSBCC_SunBear

“May all beings be happy, joyful, well, & at safety & peace!”

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/xXNx8-u3msY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] 

Sun bear is an arboreal bear. In the wild, they spend a lot of their time on tree harvesting fruits, resting, and sleeping.

This is Suria, one of a female sun bear at Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.

 In her state-of-the-art forest enclosure, she can climb trees like a wild bear.

Please help Suria and other sun bears.

Please visit http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org to learn more about sun bears and BSBCC.

By Wai Pak Ng

Dear all BSBCC loyal readers, do you still remember Julaini and Ah Lun? How about Toby? Yes, these are our three youngest bears of the centre! Bear cubs are very active and energetic. Their curiosity always beyond your imagination. In this blog, let me show you some daily pictures of them.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/4ClidXM1PCU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

By Wai Pak Ng

Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre received the 20^th rescued sun bear on 12^th November 2010.  This bear is a female adult sun bear that was kept in the Victory Mini Zoo Farm, Kudat, Northern Sabah.

 Last month, Ms Reanne Potter and her husband from Australia visited Sabah including this mini zoo . They saw this sun bear and other animals kept in a very inhumane way at the local mini zoo. The couple felt very sorry to the animals and tried to help them. At first, they found Free the Bear from the internet and communicate with them. Eventually, the news was forwarded to us. Without any delay, BSBCC made a report to Sabah Wildlife Department and a rescue operation was carried out by the Wildlife Rescue Unit.

 I would like to express greatest appreciation to Ms Reanne Potter and her husband who carried out their social responsibilities and care to our wildlife. Special thank you to Free the Bear for the networking and cooperation. Also, I would like to say a big thank you to the Sabah Wildlife Department for their swift respond and action.

BSBCC is glad to receive our new sun bear and named this female as Rungus, which is the name of the tribal people who lives in Northern Sabah. As usual, Rungus will be living in our quarantine area for a month before we could move her to our new bear house to start her rehabilitation training.

David and I carried out Rungus from the truck.

Preparing to release Rungus from the translocation cage into the quarantine enclosure in our old bear house.

This is a very typical "alert" posture for a sun bear checking out a new area for potential threats. Of every new comer, they will show various degree of nervous to the new environment.

Rungus settled down very fast in the quarantine area. She was patrolling confidently around the enclosure.

Minutes later, her natural instinct tells her there were some interesting stuff hind inside the rock pool. Then she managed to get some ants. Good job Rungus!

In the next morning, Rungus continued exploring her new enclosure. She proves that she is still a good climber.

Rungus’s full portraits. A healthy and fit adult female.

This is Rungus chest mark, just like every sun bears has their own unique patterns.

Rungus has a tiny split on her tongue.

In fact, Rungus is very tame to the keeper. She never bothers to let us take pictures on her in such a close distance.

She also gets a branch to rest on.

She gets tired, and found the best place for her to rest.

At last, Rungus has her morning siesta in the sleeping basket.

By Wai Pak Ng

There were about 40 participants from Southeast Asian rescue centers and  zoos attended the 1^st Southeast Asian Animal Enrichment & Training Workshop from the 4^th – 7^th October 2010. This workshop was hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore and instructed by Gail Laule (Active Environments) and Valarie Hare (The Shape of Enrichment).

 I am very fortunate to have the chance attending the workshop. It was a very useful workshop where all of the participants have the chance to follow lectures on the behavioral managements, techniques of positive reinforcement training and comprehensive enrichment program. Besides that, we also being given a hands-on opportunities to implement various enrichments strategies inside Singapore Zoo.

Positive reinforcement training on a white tiger.

My first encounter target training with Malay Tapir.

The most useful part of the workshop was the problem solving session. I managed to bring up the case of our regurgitation bear for discussion. At the end, every one benefit in the process of searching for the root of the problem and suggesting the solutions. After that session, I have a better idea to solve the problem at our centre now and in the future.

Valarie showing one of the groups results.

Lastly, I would like to thanks the organizing committee for the warm hospitability. You all have done great job to make this workshop a success. I am looking forward the 2^nd workshop!

Here is a link for more pictures on our enrichment setting in the zoo.

http://www.straitstimes.com/ttl/popup/ttl_popup_potd.html?id=3&path=Enrichmentforanimals_7703&type=photoessay

• Singapore zoo keepers hanging a honey-coated coconut with sugarcane pieces on a tree in the sun bear enclosure. Devices such as the honey-coated coconut are used to encourage the bears explore and use their natural instincts to find food. The Straits Times/ Desmond Foo

• A sun bear makes its way up a log as it licks the honey smeared on the log. Earlier, Singapore zoo keepers had smeared honey on coconut husks and the log to encorage the sun bears to use their explorartory and natural abilities to find their reward- a coconut that had been smeared with honey and had pieces of sugarcane embedded in it. The Straits Times/ Desmond Foo