Official visit from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (MOTAC) 2024

 Today, we welcome an official visit from the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture (MOTAC). The visit was part of a visit to development projects funded by MOTAC. Dr. Wong Siew Te was excited to give a brief introduction about BSBCC and share the past, current, and future development plans of BSBCC with the delegates. A tour to the observation platforms was done after the briefing, and they managed to see a few sun bears roaming around the forest enclosure.

 

We would like to extend our gratitude to the Kementerian Pelancongan, Seni dan Budaya Malaysia (Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture) for their support and funding of our centre. Together, we help promote ecotourism and wildlife conservation.

Thank you to Yi Ning and Zi Ying for volunteering with us

A heartfelt thank you to Yi Ning and Zi Ying for volunteering with us the past 2 weeks. Your commitment and contributions have truly made a mark on our team and sun bears we care for. We hope that you guys have learnt a lot about the Bornean sun bear and we wish you guys the best for your futures!✨

 

Big bear hugs,

The Bear Care Team🐻❤

Itam the Sun Bear

After a whole day of heavy rain and floods in Sandakan yesterday, the team was a bit worried about Itam as she decided she wanted to sleep in the forest last night. The fence reading was dangerously low due to the water levels rising quite rapidly, flooding our Forest enclosure 2.

 

Her keepers came back at night to check up on her but to no avail. She is a hide and seek champion! There were signs of her coming back to her cage and eating her bananas so we knew that she was still in her enclosure safe and well fed.

 

Today while doing some enclosure maintenance, Itam decided to show her face! Maybe she knew her caretakers were worried so she peeked at them from between the tall ginger leaves, gave a little sniff and went on her way again. You do you Itam😅

KAFA Madrasah Kem Tentera, Sandakan visit

A warm welcome to KAFA Madrasah Kem Tentera, Sandakan. The students were excited to see Romolina, the sun bear, climbing up a tree and managed to complete the worksheet given.

 

Ready to plan your school trip? Email us at info.bsbcc@gmail.com

"Better teeth, better health"

The 5 days marathon of the Wildlife Dental Workshop in Sepilok Clinic was a success! Our 11 sun bears that received the treatment are doing very well with all maintaining good appetites. Fortunately, certain foul smells of the oral cavity disappeared right away after the dental treatment. Dental health in captive wildlife is significant in animal welfare, contributing to overall health. The dental problems could be caused by previous improper diet or cage-biting behaviour.

 

BSBCC is fortunate to be equipped with a specialized portable dental unit and intraoral x-ray scanner with the Hasanah Grant. These equipment allowed us to examine, diagnose and treat the dental diseases at the root cause. We are very grateful to the vet dentist Dr. Cedric Tutt, that was willing to travel far from South Africa to help our bears. Dr. Cedric is such an inspiring person who is passionate to help the animals who can't speak up for themselves.

 

The participation from Drs. Serena (Wildlife Asia Veterinary Services), Sandy (Matang Wildlife Center), Pakee (Sunway Wildlife Park), Roopan (WWF Cambodia), Jessie (Jesslton Animal Clinic), Gillian (Loch 11 Animal Clinic) and Reza (Danau Girang Field Centre) made the workshop even more meaningful, as it boosts friendship and collaboration among different practices.

 

The workshop had reached the end, but our work to provide dental care to the animals continues. We have made plans to reach out to more captive wildlife organisations that require dental treatment.

Tenom - Born to be wild!🐻

A mixed feeling sending off Tenom, a 10-month-old female Bornean sun bear cub to the forest reserve, for soft release. We are thrilled and excited that this long-discussed project has finally been realized. As this is the pilot project, we are worried and nervous as well, praying hard that both the bear and personnel are safe throughout the project in the forest.

Tenom, upon rescued, was approximately a 3-month-old cub weighing 4kg. The tiny Tenom’s behavior is different compared to the previous hand-raised cub. She is feisty and will never hesitate to growl, bark, charge and bite. She never cries for human attention. She knows to keep herself busy around natural substances such as sticks, branches, and leaves. She has a strong instinct to feed on invertebrates, and will never get over with the termite mound. Her climbing skill is marvelous, she would climb up high, cling upside down with claws, swing and glide confidently. When she senses danger, she hides quietly in a hanging log, peeks and watches diligently.

Sun bear soft release is about raising the sun bear cub in a natural habitat. The keepers act like surrogate mothers to walk the cub daily in the forest and introduce the cub to forest food. This forest walk exposure is to develop and enhance the cub’s natural instinct to forage, feed on forest food, climb, nest building, etc. The project is meant to simulate a mother-cub relationship, where the cub will leave our care once it reaches weaning age and full independence to explore and establish its own home range. The work does not stop even when the cub has left us. The team will track the cub’s movement with satellite and VHF information.

What is the weaning age for a sun bear cub? It is 2-3 years with the mother, presumably the cub will leave human care earlier than natural circumstances. This is a long project and truly requires a dedicated tough team and a big financial investment. We are grateful to everyone involved in making this happen. Especially to Yayasan Hasanah , Kementerian Kewangan  ,  Yayasan Sime Darby, Bask Bear Coffee (Tenom's adopter) and Planet Wild .

The sun bear soft release under the Tabin Sun Bear Project will be a milestone in the conservation of the Bornean sun bear.