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.
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Here are some photos during the integration of Montom with other adult bears.

Integration Montom with Julaini and Ah Lun
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Text by Bellinda Raymond (Intern Student)
Photos by BSBCC
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Kudat is a 7 years old adult male sun bear, who was named after a district in the northern part of Sabah. Before he was sent to Kudat district, he came originally from Tawau district. Kudat was kept as a display in a private mini zoo together with a female sun bear named Panda. At the private mini zoo, both Kudat and Panda were on display as ‘black panda’. Later, they were surrendered to the Sabah Wildlife Department and BSBCC in 2013. At BSBCC, Kudat enjoy his new environment and began to explore the forest around him.

Kudat’s last friend was Panda which is in year 2013. Although sun bear is a solitary animal when they are in the wild, BSBCC encouraged a healthy positive social behaviour among the bears at the centre. At BSBCC, sun bears are integrated according to their body size, personality and age group. Bears integration is encouraged in this centre to bring out the positive behaviour development among the bears such as defensive skills and learning from each other through socializing. The number of cages in the bear house is very limited too where for now it only can accommodate up to 40 bears. Therefore, integration is also one of the ways to save up space in the bear house where the bears are integrated so that they can be in groups.

The first step in integration is integrating the bears cage by cage. The bears will start to sniff around their new environment especially when there is a new bear next to their cage. After that, integration body contact will be carried out where the sliding door between the two cages will be opened and the bears will start to meet each other.

In July 2015, Kudat started to be integrated to a group consisting Julaini, Rungus, Ah Lun, Panda and Chin. Kudat is integrated one by one from the group before they can be in one big group together. The integration of Kudat started off with the bear that is the dominant in the group. Kudat is integrated with Ah Lun first. When Kudat placed next to Ah Lun’s cage, Kudat started to become curious and keep sniffing around. He climbed the cage to have a peek of the bear next to his cage. As soon as the sliding door is opened, Ah Lun went into Kudat’s cage first. When Kudat and Ah Lun met, they took some time to get to know to each other. After they feel confident about each other, they started to play with each other. ​

After Ah Lun, Kudat is introduced to Chin. When she met Kudat, she was curious at first. Kudat and Chin sniff around their new environment and even sniff at each other. ​

The integration between Kudat and all the bears showed positive integration except for Chin. When Kudat and Chin were integrated earlier, they played in a friendly manner. However, after some time Kudat and Chin started to become aggressive and they fighted. Kudat and Chin were then separated by cages. We tried to integrate Kudat and Chin again, but there are still aggressions occurred between them. This means that the integration between Kudat and Chin is negative. We concluded and decided that Kudat and Chin cannot be integrated to each other. Despite this, Kudat’s integration with Julaini, Rungus, Ah Lun and Panda shows positive result.

Kudat’s integration with the other bears is still on going. Hopefully, their integration can be successful in the end. When the integration is successful, Kudat, Julaini, Rungus, Ah Lun and Panda will be in one group and will step into the forest together.
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Panda's time was finally up and it was decided that she would be integrated with an established group of bears around her age who currently enjoy pen D, Julaini the male of the group and the two females Ah Lun and Rungus. Integration into this group began in February 2015 introducing Panda to the most aggressive of the group first Ah Lun. This is to ensure a successful match as integration of bears who are normally solitary can take a long time. If the dominant bear doesn't accept the new bear then it would be wasted time to familiarise Panda with the other bears if ultimately she would always be rejected by the "leader". It is all a bit high school! 

While the BSBCC team began the group integration from February 5th, the integration work is still continuing several months later demonstrating the patience and time needed to group the bears.  As part of my volunteer program, I got to observe one of Panda´s integration sessions in July 2015. I noted quickly that while Panda is large for her size due to a previous diet of a daily chicken in the mini zoo, she doesn't use that to her advantage as she is much more interested in playing with the other bears. It was great to see Julaini and Panda played with each other with playful barks and bites on the back. Both take turns using their strength to pull the other down. Bear playfights reminded me of growing up with my three siblings while sometimes it looks too rough, the bears know their limits and know when to bark in a way to demonstrate that they have had enough or the playing has gone too far. ​

During my observation,  Panda and Ah Lun played in their cage while Julaini alternated between watching from the hammock or resting between the cages.  It is a good sign when bears are happy to rest while the other bears are in their cage as it shows that they are happy to be in each other´s presence. Also another good sign is if the bears are happy to share food. ​

It was also decided after an unsuccessful integration with another group that Chin would be introduced to this group. Chin perhaps learning from the previous experience always displays her dominance. Chin was introduced last during my observation as the team know that Chin will show these traits. When Chin was introduced into the third cage, giving the bears more space in case the dominance went too far, she was quick to growl and bark and pull back her nose to show her teeth when she approached the other two cages. Panda showed interest in playing but Chin was more interested in ensuring that no one came into the cage she was occupying and sat firmly in the doorway. Ah Lun showed some signs of fear as Chin ended up in the doorway holding the other three bears in one cage and not letting any of the bears play with her or enter the other cages. Chin was quite interesting to watch as the noises they are make are quite unusual and can grow from low growls to barks like a dog. Chin also shows her dominance by standing up.  ​

Following up on the indoor integration of the Mary and Natalie groups, today we saw the culmination of the exercise – the whole group outside sharing one forest enclosure!
By regularly allowing the indoor socializing and ‘wrestling parties’ these bears so love, the bear house team ensured the two groups remained on friendly terms.
Finally the time had come to test their ‘friendliness’ outdoors, where controlling a tense situation or fight would be impossible. A few of us entered the forest enclosure to scatter loads of fruit which would serve to distract from conflict, and fill tummies, hopefully creating a contented environment. Having only fed and observed from the feeding platform into this forest enclosure, I felt a little like being in someone’s home without their permission!

As the BSBCC presently only has 3 outdoor pens large enough to accommodate several bears at the same time, some seriously strategic ‘bear shuffling’ has to occur in the bearhouse in order to get the right bears into the right cages for the outdoor exit ramps.

There are 2 existing groups that need to be integrated so they can occupy one outdoor pen instead of two, freeing up the second outdoor pen for Bermuda, a large mature male who is eagerly awaiting his outdoor sessions.

The two groups are ‘matriarchal’. The’’ Mary’’ group consists of 6 sub adult bears – little Mary, Ah Bui, Debbie, Koko, Bongkud and young male Fulung. 2nd group is Natalie’s group of four, with Natalie, Ah Lun,  Runggus and young male Julaini.

Bear etiquette dictates that a polite introduction is by way of curiously sniffing through an interconnecting gateway - if no sign of aggression is seen, then the gateway is opened cautiously by the bear keeper, and one bear may proceed into the adjoining cage where the sniffing procedure progresses to a stage of playful paw inductions. Hereafter it is quite permissible to raucously cavort around the cage and wrestle in the hammock (or other enrichment provided) until one or both bears are completely exhausted. Suckling on a bear’s ears is a privilege for best friends only.

Integration started on the 9th September by daily introducing one bear from Mary’s group to the Natalie group bears, one bear at a time over an hour or so. These introductions over the week went amazingly well with no hint of aggression as each bear learnt the smells, stature and behaviour of the others, in spite of two females being on heat during the process.

Text and photos by Chiew Lin May
On March 13th 2013, Ah Lun and Julaini stepped foot into the forest for the first time. These 4 sub-adult sun bears are now spending their days roaming, foraging, and digging in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) forest enclosure.

Now Natalie and Rungus are confidently roaming the forest. Once the door is open both of them will go out immediately. They are enjoying their freedom. They have large trees to climb, decayed wood/logs, soil to dig in, and a natural forest to explore. Through the forest enclosure they look for a comfortable place to take a rest. They are doing well and spending the rest of their days getting used to the sights and sounds of their new environment where they are learning what it takes to live like wild sun bears.
Natalie is an excellent climber, and spends much of her time in trees foraging for her meals, insects, by using her long, sharp claws. Natalie is a great leader. She is very independent and has taught herself how to climb high up in the trees. Additionally, she loves to be outside. Rungus likes to makes a mess by scraping off all the soil or decayed wood she can searching for termites, beetles and other invertebrates. Ah Lun and Julaini surprisingly have shown some confident roaming in the forest enclosure already. Ah Lun prefers to spend her time alone, playing happily in the forest enclosure. It took Julaini a while to come out of his door and take a few steps. He was extremely wary of his new surroundings. He sniffed and foraged around the entire place.
It has been very heart-warming to see them grow in confidence and strength, as they become used to using all four limbs and climbing high up in the trees. All these things encourage natural, wild behaviour. They are all making great progress.
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) is in a wonderful location for true rehabilitation as the forest has huge trees sun bears love. Seeing this forest dwelling species digging and climbing happily in the forest all day long is extremely motivating.
Here are a couple of photos of Natalie, Rungus, Ah Lun and Julaini roaming, digging and climbing trees at BSBCC forest enclosure.

Text by Wai Pak Ng

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Dear all BSBCC loyal readers, do you still remember Julaini and Ah Lun? How about Toby? Yes, these are our three youngest bears of the centre! Bear cubs are very active and energetic. Their curiosity always beyond your imagination. In this blog, let me show you some daily pictures of them.

Text and photos by Wai Pak
 
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After few days of observation on our latest rescued sun bears, Julaini and Ah Lun, we decided to integrate them as what we had planned. Both of them are young and are so curious to find out more about their new world. Just like human, sun bear cub like to have company and a play pal to play with.
 
First, we put both bears in the cages next to each other. Both of them seem comfortable with each other presence. They came close to each other, sniffing, touching, and licking, but still separated by bars. They used their own way to communicate without fighting. We are pleased to see the positive encounter and continue our observation and integration program for another day.
 
The next day, we are quite confidence to open up the sliding door to mix them. Ah Lun was first bear to explore into the Juliani's cage. She seemed to be stimulated by Ah Lun's smells and got very excited to explore at every single corner of the cage, sniffing non-stop and checking out every branches that Julaini had played and chewed before. Meanwhile, Julaini just relaxed and resting in his basket.

It was so fascinating to see them playing, biting, rolling on the floor and chasing each other up and down, from one cage to another cage. They remind me the first day we integrate Ah Chong and Om. All these bears are so energetic and never seem tired of playing.

Everybody in the centre was so glad to see Ah Lun and Julaini live together peacefully. It is another sweet moment at BSBCC, a happy story to share with you all.

By Wai Pak Ng


Ah Lun, our new rescued sun bear cub at the centre had a very fast adjustment in her new den after settle down in her new den. This one-year-old female sun bear once was kept in a tiny iron cage for many months can now stretch all her legs and climb like a primate. Even though she sometimes fells down from where she was when trying to get a good latch-on from her still weak muscle, she never gives up and climbs up high again without showing any sign of fear. That’s the spirit of a typical sun bear, never give up! Bravo, Ah Lun! I am sure you will get all your muscle strength very soon.

​Remember, our natural forest enclosures are out there waiting for you, tall trees, yummy honey, crunchy decayed woods and many more! Can’t you hear the birds are calling on you?

Text by Wai Pak Ng
 

This morning when I first step in the bear house, I found Julaini still sleeping inside her hanging basket in his den just like others in the centre. He must have slept well and had a sweet dream the entire night. Julaini really deserve it. I am sure it has been a long time that he did not sleep well. I just cannot imagine he could sleep well in  a 4x 4x 5 feet iron cage with faeces and left over food on the ground !

Some words to Little Julaini and Ah Lun:
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Welcome to BSBCC! It’s our duty to provide a better life to every rescued sun bears that send to our centre. I hope both of you like your new home. This is just the beginning. Very soon, we will bring you back to the forest, your real home.
However, before that can happen please be patient. Both of you still need to go through some learning programme after your quarantine period for 3 weeks. Suria already getting very exciting to know that both of you so that you all will mix and form a young cub group. She also can't wait to show you how fun to dig soil, looking for termites and climb up to the tree!