Photo by Chiew Lin May
During this period, there were five bears that were selected to undergo castration (physical removal of both testicles from the male bear). Amaco, Gutuk, Kudat, Julaini and Fulung were castrated based on two conditions:
1. Male bears that will never be released in the wild as they are old, injured or need strong human attention
2. Male bears that will never be involved in a captive breeding programme
We hope the castration will further improve the animals’ welfare, promote social behaviour, further learning of survival skills and effectiveness on space use.
After the annual health check for 28 bears from the bear house, next was the bears in quarantine. There were five bears transferred from the quarantine to the bear house. The bears that transferred to the bear house will be living with other bears the same age and will slowly be released to the natural forest enclosure to promote their social behaviour with other bears. This will encourage them to adapt with the forest environment as well. We are hoping that these bears can adapt well in the forest enclosure and can be released back to the wild later as our objective is to rehabilitate the bears and release them back to the wild.