Happy 30th Birthday Amaco!

Text by Lucie Muddell

Photos and videos by Nealbert Robert & Jacquelyn Jepiuh


Last week there were big celebrations for BSBCC’s oldest bear, Amaco, who turned the grand old age of 30 years old!

To honour this great milestone, the BSBCC staff and volunteers brought the forest to Amaco and decorated his den. Amaco enjoys being busy in his den – he loves rolling, digging into dead wood and focusing on working to get treats out of his enrichments, so the team decided to combine his enjoyment of these things and bring them to his den as a special birthday surprise.
During the afternoon before Amaco’s birthday, the team set about finding natural materials around the BSBCC site and with a variety of exciting treasures found, they set to work creating a fun indoor forest enclosure.

Huge amounts of banana leaves were bound together with vines and positioned amongst swathes of ginger leaves, covering the walls to replicate the forest outside. Vines were draped through the top of the den, with dried leaves and twigs gathered together in piles across the floor.

As with all big birthday celebrations some extra gifts were added to Amaco’s forest den; boxes were stuffed with dried leaves, and some of his favourite treats of banana or marshmallow wrapped in ginger leaf were rolled into balls, and the parcels hidden amongst the leaves for him to find. The boxes were then secured with vines and a birthday bow was tied on each box for Amaco to open.

When Amaco saw his special birthday den he immediately got to work exploring his indoor forest. He opened the gift boxes first, wasting no time in finding all of the banana and marshmallow parcels, enjoying the challenge of digging amongst the leaves to discover what treats had been hidden inside. He then slowly wandered amongst the dried leaves and explored every bit of his indoor forest in detail, before lying down to relax and enjoy the rest of his special day.

We would like to give a big thank you to our constant supporters – Hasanah Foundation and Sime Darby Foundation. With their help we are able to give bears like Amaco a better and longer life. Amaco thanks you for all your help and support!