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.