Know More About Kina

14/4/2017



Hi, I'm Kina!

Time has flown!  Kina recently just finished her quarantine care under BSBCC and is a one year old female juvenile bear. Previously, she was kept as a pet for more than a year before her owner decided to surrender her to Sabah Wildlife Department. Her owner claimed that Kina’s mother abandoned her when they were crossing a road and her mother got frightened and ran away while leaving her behind. During that time, she was just a bear cub and had not opened her eyes yet. She showed signs of malnutrition with her relatively small head compared to her body size. With an appropriate diet in BSBCC, she now weighs 18.4kg! Her favourite foods are papaya, honeydew, egg and of course milk! Though, even with her favourites, Kina is not picky and still enjoys all the food that we have given to her!

My favourite foods are honeydew, coconut and hmm.. many more!

​She has adapted well in quarantine since she arrived here at BSBCC and spends her time in her cage that is full of fire hose enrichment products such as fire hose hammock, wood hammock, and a heart-shaped honeycomb. Other than that, she also likes to play KONG, Aussie Dog Ball, and her favourite toy, the Bear Ball!! She totally is an enrichment lover. She loves to stay on the hanging platform where this allows her to stay up high and for her resting needs. The hanging platform is like her secret garden – It brings us much joy and happiness to see her bring her favourite food or toys up there to play with it.

My cage is full of fire hose enrichment products!

The Aussie Dog Ball is inside the Fire Hose Basket.

I got the Aussie Dog Ball! Let me see what is inside the ball!

I fit in the basket! And I want to bring along the Aussie Dog Ball with me!!

In order to encourage her natural bear behaviour, keepers let her out to a larger den where there will be a larger space for her to explore around and get closer to the forest. Kina will step out from her cage with utmost curiosity and will explore the environment around her from every single corner like a good inspector. She enjoys staying in a natural environment like a den that is decorated with leaves and decayed wood. Most of the time, she explores the enrichment that has been prepared in the den. Kina’s day can be so simple where even a small decayed wood can simply make her day. She just knows how to enjoy the time with her own ways by lying on the dry leaves and turning on her relax mode.

This is the new den for me!

Let me check every corner here!

Is it something here?

Or maybe here?

Finally I'm here on the 'Platform Tree'!!

Tree barks in the basket!

See! I'm so good in playing with tire!

This is the forest that I have been looking for!

Closer to the forest make me hyperactive!

Let me introduce this is my favourite enrichment, bear ball!

I like to bring the bear ball with me!

Hammock!

Natural environment make me feel like I'm home!

I'm enjoying with all the leaves and woods.

Make me be a happy kid!!

Dancing like an Opera!

Kina is a playful bear. The keepers will play fight with her so she can also learn some of the defence skills to protect herself later onwards. She shows her strength during the play fight that can be seen through pawing, which is a bear way of playing. However, some of the bear survival skills cannot be taught from a caretaker such as foraging, building a tree nest and so on. Hence, we plan to introduce her to a new bear friend who can teach her to become a real bear using the bear way. We one day hope that Kina will forage, build nests and stay in the wild because she truly deserves it, and deserves to be a real wild bear.

My caretaker, Azzry spend time with me.

My another caretaker, Jeniur.

Where is my bear friend?

It All Started with One Little Sweet Natured Cub - Sika

4/4/2017

Since being rescued from a village in Sikalabaan, Sabah on February 9th 2017, Sika, a five month old, female sun bear cub, has completed her time in quarantine.

Sika is being bottle fed five times a day in FIDO dog milk replacer

She has shown tremendous growth in the last month. She is an active, healthy and beautiful female bear cub. She now weighs 7.25kg. 

Chart shows the growth curve of Sika cub (Updated 4th April 2017). Showing Sika is in good health and gain more weight

The next rehabilitation phase for Sika is taking her out for walks in the forest. The problem with Sika is that she is still nervous to step out from her dens and the bonding between her surrogate mother is still weak. She was caged alone as a pet in a chicken mesh cage after losing her mother. All little Sika knew was pain and fear. She has needed to gain back confidence and trust towards her new surroundings

To prepare her in gaining back strength, confidence and trust, we have moved Sika into a larger exercise den with an environment which is as close as possible to life in the wild. This exercise dens is full of natural habitat enrichment such as dead wood, green leaves, leafy browse, climbing structures, a platform, and treats to stimulate and prepare her for life back in the wild.

Bear care team are help to setting up in various type of environmental enrichment

We gave Sika the opportunity to venture out for the very first time. Once Sika was brought to the larger exercise den, she was easily stressed by noise and paced with alert at the new larger exercise den. She kept vocalizing and was uncomfortable with it. We tried to comfort and help her adapt to the new environment by showing her new enrichment toys. Sika needed plenty of time.

Thankfully, she did it! She calmed down and adapted to it. She decided it was time to explore the whole exercise den. Sun bear cubs require a lot of exercise to practice their physical skills and grow stronger! Her courage has grown with each day and she has started exploring.

Sika naturally curious but also very alert

She becoming more playful and less nervous!

Stretching body before enter exercise dens!

She will gaze up at the nearby forest surrounding her exercise dens. 

FOREST will be my HOME!

She always goes straight to the big log and pulls off its branches. After one week, we are pleased with her progress in finding the strength to venture without any hesitation. 

Since little Sika was moved to larger exercise dens, she have been develop at a great rate!

​Sika is learning to trust her surrogate mother without fear. She will be growing and learning under the guidance of her surrogate mother.

With great love the surrogate mother teach Little Sika how to climb tree!

She loves rolling and wrestling, and she is just so happy. Sika has excellent climbing skills. She uses her small curved claws to create a cavity in the climbing log to get the ants. Sometimes she will climb high to get a better look and avoid strange sounds! We envy her tree-climbing skills!!

Curious Sika climbs higher the platform tree

Sika is busy in digging!!

Sika digs the log hole in search of insects and leave distinctive claw marks!

We envy her tree-climbing skills!!

Little more playful!

Tired after play !

Tired after play !

Sika fun, for sure!

She is learning and experiencing that life as a wild bear can be great. She knows her tragic past is now behind her and is discovering her natural behavior. She has proven herself to be a sweet natured sun bear! We hope the next move will be taking little Sika on walks in  

the forest to let her experience the true Bornean environment.

Bring Sika to walk in forest in preparing Sika to live independently in her forest HOME.

Bring Sika to walk in forest in preparing Sika to live independently in her forest HOME.