My Confession about the Confession Bear

Date: December 16th 2014

Text by Hng Lee Ying

If you always surf the internet, you must have seen this confession bear somewhere before, either be it on the Facebook or 9gag. I did not realize I was going to meet the famous confession bear until my college friend told me that confession bear is our Malayan Sun Bear! Although I was born and raised in Penang, Malaysia, I know nothing about the sun bear prior to the volunteering. To fill in the knowledge gap, I came to BSBCC



Internet name: Confession Bear

For the 17 days I spent volunteering in the BSBCC, there was not a day I did not wake up eagerly and look forward to work. It was the combinations of the people, working environment and the nature that make it ‘pops’ for me.

Local people, especially the staff members are friendly and genuine. I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with a team of 19 who had taught me many things unsparingly. They shared with me their experiences, conservation works and life stories. Occasionally, or almost every day, they would tell me ‘interesting’ local tales that had kept me awake for a few nights (thank you). The most amazing part is that every staff’s eyes sparkle when they talk about the sun bears, forest, nature conservation and things they hope to see happening in the future.

Photo by Tee Thye Lim

Mr. Wong Siew Te – The CEO & Founder of BSBCC

Most people thought the working environment in the conservation field is much slower and less stressful compared to the corporate companies’. Maybe it is somewhat true, but conservation work is no less challenging and tough. With a team of 19, there are 35 sun bears to be taken care of and monitored, hundreds of visitor flow to be managed every day, not to mention those are just the tip of the iceberg! As a volunteer, I worked mostly in the animal husbandry and education work which both I enjoyed very much.

Photo by Chiew Lin May

Everything in the nature is simply intriguing. The perks of working in BSBCC is that other than the sun bears, I got to meet some of the nature habitants too. For instances, the ‘up high’ rhinoceros hornbill, red leaf monkey, black giant squirrel, flying squirrel, the ‘neighbors’ orang utan, the ‘tenants’ bornean pygmy elephants, the ‘marbly’ pill millipede, sneaky leeches etc. O ya, and the annoying macaques too (you will understand once you volunteer).

Thank you BSBCC for the valuable experiences. It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to get to know each of you and be part of the team. Lots of love for you all!

Photo by Tee Thye Lim