Photos by Kelvin Chee Hon Yong & BSBCC
Hi, my name is Kelvin Chee from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). I just finish my study in Conservation & Management of Biodiversity and internship is a part of the requirement for my course. I’m feeling very lucky because can get a placement in BSBCC as many people apply their internship here as well.
The first day I start to work in the bear house, Thye Lim as my supervisor run an induction to me and I still remember the words that he told me: Don’t think yourself is an intern student, but think yourself as a staff so you motivating yourself to learn and work hard and mix around with the staff. That’s why I start to follow their high pace working schedule on the second day. But that was really amazing because I learnt a lot of stuff especially how to work in a team and time management.
There are many stories to tell but I think I would like to choose some to say here. First what I thought intern here was just joining some outreach program or doing some field work. I don’t even know that intern need to wash the cages everyday! What terrifying is when you working in the kitchen preparing foods for the bears! Preparing the fruits but you can’t eat it under the hot weather and you are in hungry condition. What I mean is you can just easily get hungry during that time. And that smell of sweet corn and sweet potato will make you even hungry! Sometimes I will be duty in the kitchen for the whole week, and that particular week for sure I will buy some fruits from the market to release my tension! Besides that, the time when we making enrichments were really enjoying. They always make laugh on me when taking bamboo from outside. There is a time when me alone taking the bamboo from the outside of the main gate to the bear house, and it was really harsh to me! As they said this can build my muscles?! Oh…. After two months, it’s really build up my muscle! Wow~ So working in the bear house will definitely train you as fit as possible!