Siew Te Wong's Sun Bear Journal

7/1/11

Beartrek (Joe Pontecorvo) visited BSBCC – Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

A sms that I received on the evening of the June 28th sent my excitement to the roof. The text message was from Joe Pontecorvo, the Director and Producer of Beartrek, that he was in Kota Kinabalu and he was on his way to Sandakan to visit me and Cerah the sun bear.

Capture

For those of you who do not know BEARTREK, please click here or visit http://wildlifemedia.org/the-movie/watch-clips/.

“BEARTREK is Wildlife Media’s first feature-length film. It takes you on a global motorcycle quest with insatiable adventurer and biologist Chris Morgan. Chris traverses the wildest places on Earth seeking out the rarest bear species and the dedicated people racing to save them from extinction. Movie profits will fund bear conservation, including projects highlighted in the film. Watch the clips below, explore this website, then support wildlife and wild places“

Joe taking photos of Keningau the female sun bear in BSBCC forest enclosure.

Joe is not ordinary film director. He is THE director and producer that produced several wildlife documentaries, BEARTREK and also the latest highly acclaimed PBS Nature documentary, “Bears of The Last Frontier.” In 2007, Joe together with Chris Morgan and their team from the Wildlife Media visited me in Danum Valley when I was conducting a 3 years field work studying wild sun bears and bearded pigs. We completed the filming for the sun bear section for BEARTREK with Chris, who is the host and the narrator of the movie. After almost 4 years since Joe left Borneo, he was back to this part of the world for a new mission. I am so glad to meet him, to catch up with him, and we discussed potential corroboration works for us in the future.

Joe and me beside the BSBCC's forest enclosure

BEARTREK is not just another wildlife documentary about bears. It will be the first wildlife movie that show case the little known sun bear and the plights of their survival on the island of Borneo. It will for sure create a huge positive force to raise awareness and enlighten millions of audiences across the world about the uniqueness, preciousness, and the beautifulness of sun bears that live in the dense tropical rainforest of Borneo. Over the last four years the promos of Beartrek and a tailor-made video of sun bear from Wildlife Media has instrumental the success of several fund raising events for BSBCC. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Joe, Chris and their team in Wildlife Media to making all of these possible.

Thank you guys!

Please read more about BEARTREK:

http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2009/04/19/bellingham-ecologist-makes-bear-documentary-to-save-wild-places/

http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/05/18/beartrek-the-movie/

Keningau climbed down from a tree while Lawa the sun bear has been trying to break a coconut for hours.

6/27/11

A volunteer’s story at BSBCC – Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

By Marianne Sim

It was a great privilege to work as a volunteer for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) at Sepilok for four weeks (Feb/Mar 2011). I was greeted on arrival at Sandakan airport by the forever smiling Wai Pak Ng, BSBCC Project Manager.

My first day commenced with an induction by the Sun Bear keepers David and Daniel. I was introduced to all 19 Sun Bears, safety procedures were explained and the keepers demonstrated how to perform the work required. I assisted David and Daniel by preparing food, cleaning pens and providing enrichment for the bears. The keepers were a pleasure to work with and my enrichment ideas were welcomed.

As a volunteer you really get to know and recognise the bears individually. They all have different pale orange-yellow markings on their chest and all have their own personality. The youngest bear is around 6 months old and the oldest bear around 16 years old.

I was very impressed with the design of the new bear house. It has a lot of natural light, is well ventilated, easy to clean, and has a well designed feeding/watering system. The outdoor enclosure is a large primary forest area with many tall trees. This allows the bears to exhibit natural bear behaviour e.g. climbing trees, digging, breaking apart rotten logs searching for insects.

The Sun Bear is a ‘vulnerable’ species and could become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival improve. Sun Bears are threatened by habitat destruction, conflict with humans, poaching for bear body parts and bear bile used in Chinese medicine and the pet trade. The Sun Bears natural habitat has been destroyed as the land is taken over by palm oil plantations. Palm oil is found in a variety of products on our supermarket shelves including margarine, chocolate, biscuits and soap to name a few. It is important that we all take responsibility for the products we put in our supermarket trolleys and we keep the pressure on governments, manufacturers and supermarkets to improve product labelling so we can make informed choices about the products we purchase. There are many medicinal alternatives to using bear body parts and bear bile in Chinese medicine. Please use these alternatives and end the bears suffering. Sun Bears make very bad pets. Although they appear cute as babies they have long claws, sharp teeth and are very strong. They soon grow up, become difficult to control and end up depressed in confined cages. Their home is the forest and they should never be kept as pets for human entertainment.

I particularly enjoyed observing the bears in their forest enclosure and during their enrichment activities. The youngest bear Natalie, approximately 6 months old, is a joy to observe (http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2011/01/16/update-of-natalie/). Natalie has endless energy, is constantly playing and exhibits natural bear instincts. Natalie has the right qualities to be released back into the wild but in order to do this funds are required to start the rehabilitation process. Staff are required to care and monitor her until she can confidently display all the skills needed to survive in the forest on her own. With your donation (http://www.leapspiral.org/content/support_leap.php) or merchandise purchase (http://www.zazzle.co.uk/gifts?ch=theborneansunbear) the BSBCC will be one step closer to this happening. Funds are also required to build a Sun Bear visitors centre at Sepilok. This will be an important educational facility and gives visitors the opportunity to learn about this charismatic bear species.

While working as a volunteer I observed first hand the hard work, long hours and dedication of Siew Te Wong (CEO and Founder of BSBCC) and Wai Pak (BSBCC Project Manager). They are great ambassadors for the Sun Bear. They are men of integrity and are extremely committed to helping the Sun Bear. I am 100% confident that any donation you make will be wisely utilised and benefit the Sun Bears greatly.

Thank you Wong and Wai Pak for an unforgettable volunteer experience. I feel extremely privileged to have worked with such dedicated people and remarkable animals. I will miss the people and the bears but look forward to coming back and seeing how the bears have developed and progressed to their final destination, their true home, THE FOREST.

Marianne Sim

United Kingdom

Natalie the sun bear cub and Wai Pak (left) encountered Marianne (right) and Paul (middle) who were woring on the enrichment in our old bear house.

Jelita the sun bear climbing a tree in the forest enclosure at BSBCC

Lawa the sun bear peeking through the undergrowth vegetation in BSBCC.

Compassionate Conservation: the holistic approaches of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre to conserve sun bears – Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Compassionate Conservation: the holistic approaches of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre to conserve sun bears – Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Last week Wai Pak and I attended the Asia for Animal 2011 Conference in Chengdu, China. Representing Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, we are the only participants from Sabah, and one of the few animal welfare, care, and rescue organizations from Malaysia to attend the biggest event and gathering of the year for animal lovers all over Asian countries. The conference was hosted by Jill Robinson and her team at Animal Asia Foundation. During the conference, I am honored to deliver a talk during the “Compassionate Conservation” session and my talk entitled “The holistic approaches of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre to conserve sun bears in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo.” I am grateful to the organizer of the conference to provide the travel expenses for me to share our experiences working with sun bears with the audience.

The abstract of the talk is as following:

The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) is being developed in Sabah Malaysian Borneo as rescue, rehabilitation, education, and research centre for the sun bear. In Sabah, these bears continue to be threatened by forest degradation and habitat loss, illegal hunting for bear parts and to protect crops, and poaching to obtain young cubs for the pet trade. As a result of these threats, many young sun bears are living in unnatural and solitary captive conditions throughout Sabah, with no access to outdoor areas. The goal of the new BSBCC is to promote Malayan sun bear conservation by (1) creating the capacity to confiscate, rehabilitate and release suitable orphaned and ex-captive bears back into the wild; (2) providing an improved long-term living environment for captive bears welfare that cannot be released; and (3) educating the public and raising awareness about this little known species through visitor and education outreach programs, and (4) conduct research on both captives and wild sun bears. The BSBCC was established as a non-profit organization in Sabah in 2008. It is a joint project among sun bear researcher Siew Te Wong, Land Empowerment Animals People (LEAP), the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and the Sabah Forestry Department (SFD). Funding for the project is acquired through various grants from funding agencies, individual donations, government supports, and special events. Bear Action Teams (BATs) volunteering program provide the opportunity for locals and international volunteer groups to get involve on husbandry and construction of the facilities. We develop BSBCC from a holistic approach involving multiple levels of people that work toward compassionate conservation where animal welfare, education, research and conservation the species all meet on the same ground. This approach is particular important to conserve threaten species like the sun bears so that maximum conservation outputs can be achieved without wasting the already limited conservation resources in this region.

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Beside attending the conference and meeting and networking with everyone. We also visited the AAF’s Chengdu Moon Bear Rescue Centre. It was truly an eye-opening experience for us to see and to learn the day-to-day operations and husbandry of the centre which currently is home to more than 160 moon bears and few brown bears. We are grateful to the centre for letting Wai Pak stay for few more days after the conference to learn more about the day-to-day husbandry and veterinary care of these rescued moon bears. All of the knowledge is crucial to help BSBCC do a better job on caring and managing our rescued sun bears.

Wai Pak and the rescued moon bear in the enclosure

This is a relative size of a moon bear and me! Moon bear is big!

Finally I also visited the Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu to see the third species of bears beside the moon and the brown bears – the black and white bear- Giant Panda! They, of course, is the complete opposite of the little known sun bear because giant panda is THE super star, super celebrity, super worship, super popular and by far THE most well known bear species in the world!

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The Panda centre also has many red pandas!

BSBCC’s Facebook fundraiser 2011 a success! (updated) – Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

Organized by several dedicated volunteers of BSBCC, BSBCC Fundraiser on Facebook has a big success by raising $4152 as I updated this blog on June 17th. Although I cannot join this fundraising event on Facebook (as I was in China attending conference) and thank you personally and immediately as you made your donation, my heart always be with you and thank each of you!

Thank you all for donating to BSBCC!

Thank you all for supporting BSBCC!

Thank you all for helping the sun bears!

Beside thank you, I still want to thank you, especially the BSBCC fund raising committee, Sheri, Wendy, Michele and many others who have work tirelessly and organized this events for the past many months.

The fundraiser team will work out on the winners of the prizes and will send those prizes out in the near future. Please stay tunned!

Thank you!

Cerah enjoying her morning walk in the forest enclosure at BSBCC.

Om the sun bear enjoying his morning snack under the morning tropical sun at BSBCC

A busy day at BSBCC – Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre

A professional speaker, international trainer, and businessman, Matthias Gelber emerged as worldwide champion in the award for Greenest Person on the Planet by 3rd Whale in Canada in 2008. On June 3rd, Matthias Gelber lead a group of friends visited BSBCC to learn more about sun bears and give a “Green talk” at the centre today. Thank you Matthias and friends to visit us.

At the same time, we also organized a visit for the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC)’s Sepilok Junior Rangers to visit us and learn more about the plights of the sun bears. At the end of the day, we all attended Matthias talk on “Going green with the younger generation in Malaysia!”

The entire program started on the evening of the 2nd with my talk on ecology, conservation of sun bear and BSBCC after nice dinner at Forest Edge Lodge.