Sun bear Noah and Wawa Play Fight
It all begins with an idea.
Video by Chiew Lin May
Life is meant for great adventures and best friends!
Integration Male Bear Montom With Adult Bear Group
It all begins with an idea.
Text by Emily Tan Yu En
Photo by Chiew Lin May
On January 18th 2015, Montom was rescued by the Sabah Wildlife Rescue Unit from Kampung Melangkap, Kota Marudu and sent him to BSBCC on 21st of January, 2015. The story reported to the Wildlife Rescue Unit was the owner’s dog chased away Montom’s mother and she left him behind. He was taken and kept as a pet for a year in a chicken wire mesh cage and fed with human food. The owner was willing to surrender Montom to the Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit.
We introduced Montom to the other sub-adult group and was pleased to see him get along well with all the bears. After a few years, Montom is no longer a sub-adult bear so we’re going to let him join the adult bear group and let other sub-adult bears to join in his previous group.
Montom was introduced to the adult bears which included Rungus, Ah Lun, Julaini, Ah Bui and Fulung. Montom was introduced one-by-one for the first six days as he will feel surprise and afraid if he meet all the bears at the same time. At first, Montom played well with all the bears but Rungus and Ah Bui didn’t really likes to play with him as they will stay on aside or rest on the enrichment in the buffer cage. Few days later, all the bears play along with him and they’re trying learn to understand each other better even though sometimes they play rough to each other. They play around and chase each other and no aggression found during the whole integration.
Here are some photos during the integration of Montom with other adult bears.
Integration Montom with Julaini and Ah Lun
Montom stays on the enrichment and tries to play with Julaini and Ah Lun.
Montom ( top ) biting Ah Lun’s back shoulder.
Julaini and Montom stand and wrestle.
The three of them get along well .
Integration Montom with Rungus and Fulung
Julaini and Fulung mouthing to Montom.
After all the integration, we let Montom join with the adult bear group to the enclosure .They will move around in the enclosure searching for food. Montom get to learn some surviving skills from the bears such as climbing, self-defence, digging and others.
在婆羅洲的14天─與馬來熊和島上所有生物的美好相遇
It all begins with an idea.
Text by Chen Fang, 陳昉
Photos by Cheng Fang & Chiew Lin May
嗨我是陳昉，是個目前正在日本念獸醫系的台灣人。從小到大我一直都很喜歡動物，其中最喜歡的就是台灣黑熊(只分布於台灣的亞洲黑熊特有亞種!模樣十分帥氣可愛有興趣的話請務必搜尋了解一下!)。去年暑假有個在日本的輕井澤接觸亞洲黑熊的機會，在那之後便覺得應該要趁有時間有體力的時候多多與熊接觸於是便決定參加這次的志工。
在來到這裡之前對於馬來熊我是一無所知，只知道他們是世界上體型最小的熊、不冬眠然後分布於東南亞。托這次的志工服務的福我有機會近距離觀察馬來熊的型態和行為，深刻體認到要了解一種動物最好的方式便是親眼觀察牠們。網路和書本上的知識固然重要，但唯有親眼見到這些動物活動的姿態才有辦法深深烙印在腦海裡吧!
這兩個禮拜在BSBCC的日子十分充實，每天打掃籠子、準備食物及餵食、做玩具豐富他們的生活環境等等，這些基本的日常瑣事要是沒有仔細執行都有可能影響到熊的健康。比方說打掃籠子(特別是喝水的地方)的時候如果沒掃乾淨的話熊很可能就會因為感染而生病、食物的種類、份量和比例沒給對的話熊可能就會營養失衡或是肥胖導致他們不適合回歸野外、沒給他們玩具或是豐富牠們的生活環境的話一部份因為各種原因還沒辦法野放在外的熊很可能就會因為沒有別的事情可以做產生壓力，進而引發刻板行為或是自殘之類的現象等等。而這些改變大多都是長期累積下來的結果，所以儘管只是每天少做一些努力都很有可能造成負面影響不可不慎
正在用木頭做給熊出來曬太陽的小小平台!
Sun Bear Ambassador Programme Official Launching (26.03.2019)
It all begins with an idea.
26th March 2019 marks the official date for the Sun Bear Ambassador Programme (SBAP); hence embarked the first official collaboration between BSBCC with Politeknik Sandakan, a local tertiary institution which is located nearby. SBAP is a great platform between the two parties for encouraging local involvements with environmental and wildlife education based volunteerism. It was such a pleasure to kick start this kind of joined effort with Politeknik Sandakan and hope that there will be more local institution collaborations with us in the future. An informative and passionate talk was given by our CEO & Founder, Dr Wong Siew Te before the SBAP being officiated by TS Dr Kesana a/l Ulaganaten, which is the Head of Department for Science & Mathematics, representing the Director of Politeknik Sandakan. A little official launching gimmick was also done to represent the collaboration before further discussion between BSBCC and Politeknik Sandakan on how the collaboration will goes for the next few years. #SunBearAmbassadorProgramme #BSBCC #PoliteknikSandakan #WildlifeConservation #Volunteeer #SBAP #Sabah #SunBear #BorneanSunBear
Tan Tan Superb Long Tongue
Video by Chiew Lin May
Did you know that sun bear has a long tongue?
Pusat Tuisyen Cerdik Minda Sandakan visit (23.03.19)
Pusat Tuisyen Cerdik Minda has once again visited BSBCC today, after their visit to Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC). A total of 69 students from Primary 1 to 6 and 8 accompanying teachers involved in this visit. The students were given presentation and activities by Ms. Melynda, after being divided into 7 groups of 7 to 9 students. Before they went to the observation platform to see the sun bears roaming in the forest enclosure, they were also given a task within each group to enhance their understanding and share their knowledge by presenting to their fellow friends on different topics about Sun Bear. Thanks again for the visit! #EnvironmentalEducation #AwarenessProgramme #PrimarySchool #SaveSunBear
Outreach to SMK Simpangan, Paitan (19th March 2019)
On 19th of March 2019, Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) Environmental Education (EE) Unit teamed up with Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and HUTAN-Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme (HUTAN-KOCP) EE units to organized a successful outreach programme organized by SWD to SMK Simpangan, Paitan. Aimed to raise awareness among the students and teachers on the conservation of wildlife and of course, for our part, the cute sun bears. The programme itself filled with various activities such as talks, exhibitions, interactive games and video shows to enhance the effectiveness of the outreach. For sure, we hope this will become a stepping stone for our effort to continuously educate people about our wildlife and ultimately achieving our objective to save and conserve our wildlife for our future generations.
Jovial Moments at BSBCC
Text By Emily Tan Yu En
Photos By BSBCC & APE Malaysia
Hey everyone! I’m Emily Tan Yu En, 17 from Penang, Malaysia and I just graduated from high school. I am waiting for my SPM results and I have 3 months before entering university. I came across this volunteering programme as my parents got to know about it from Mr Wong. Even though I’m a Malaysian, I’ve never been to Sabah before and I was really excited about this programme. I am no stranger to sun bears as I saw one in a mini zoo in Peninsula Malaysia. There are two sun bears in that enclosure and you can tell from their facial expression that they’re not being treated well in the zoo. Their enclosure is really small and they only get contact with each other. That was the first experience with sun bears.
My volunteering programme starts from 5th of January until 18th of January and there are five more volunteers at that time but I’m the only one who has a two week placement. I’ve experience a lot of first experiences throughout the project. For my two weeks in the bear house, I get to clean the cages, work in the kitchen, do enrichments for the bears and also a lot of funny moments like getting stuck in the mud after collecting banana leaves , falling in the drain because of a flood , a piece of wood fell on my foot and a lot more. I also get to build a swing for the cub with my buddy, Brandon and Ieda. The volunteers from Ape Malaysia are really nice and I really had a great time with them. We played card games every night and we laughed a lot.
Me doing my enrichment
Bintang Grown Up!
Video by Chiew Lin May
Bintang on her first day of arrival vs four years later.. She was rescued from an illegal house pet and was sent to the BSBCC on 15th July 2014.
Today, Bintang grows up learning to be a wild bear. It takes a lot of time and love for Bintang to forget her traumatic past.
We have two things that sun bears do not, which is the voice and freedom. Please use your voice to help them!
Conservation Education Workshop, Phnom Penh (March 11th-15th)
BSBCC has sent off two staffs from our Environmental Education unit (Gloria Ganang and Melynda Cheok) for a 4-day training workshop which was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Monday 11th to Thursday 14th March 2019 with a field visit to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre on Friday 15th March. The workshop was hosted by Free the Bears Fund, in collaboration with San Diego Zoo Global and support from the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA). The training workshop includes lectures, seminars and practical exercises by recognized leaders in the field of social science and behaviour change, including Dr. Diogo Verissimo, Dr. Sarah Thomas, and Dr. Elizabeth Davis. In this workshop the participants was introduced to the processes of planning and evaluating educational programmes, including; (1) Strategic planning for designing an educational programme (including the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria conservation education standards), (2) Understanding key concepts in social science and behavior change, and (3) How to design and implement monitoring and evaluation of educational programs (including questionnaire design and other methods). A wide range of people participated from six nations and more than 10 different organizations represented. It was a great platform to networking and exchanging the works of the other organizations doing in conservation education.
