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Video by Chiew Lin May Opportunistic omnivorous!! Logan is getting very curious about the wild world around him. He found an Asian box turtle carcass and took great joy in ripping open it. He loving every minute of it!
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Video by Chiew Lin May The rainy season is slowly starting up in Sepliok, Sabah. Sun bear Logan and Romolina enjoy a small break in the rain. Video by Chiew Lin May The omnivorous sun bear relies on primary on fruits and insects to meet its needs. Logan found a rat carcass at the forest! Cravingsss! Text and Photos by Chiew Lin May Million thanks to Anton Ngui for the support and kind fruits donation for the rescued bears. We would not be able to provide this without your help. Sun bears love tasty fruits! This is where you can help them. Every gift gives these bears the love they really deserve. You all make the difference! Text and Photos by Chiew Lin May Each rescued sun bear that has arrived at BSBCC were previously kept locked in cages and would try to bite the bars to find their way out; this has caused them to suffer from severe dental disease. Inappropriate diet in the pet trade can also lead to long term dental damage. Dental disease is an often overlooked threat to the comfort and health of bears. BSBCC organised a workshop about the “Sun Bear Dental Case” on 20-23 Aug 2019. It was a real honour and privilege to have amazing guests from Singapore Zoo, Dr. Ali Anwar and Dr. Serena Oh from Wildlife Asia Veterinary Services (WAVES) came to share their experiences with veterinarians and us about how to detect and treat dental problems in the bears. The workshop focused on animal dental anatomy, dental charts, dental radiography techniques, and periodontal diseases. Three sun bears: Diana, Logan, and Kudat were chosen to receive treatment for dental radiography and dental extraction. Through receiving these dental care treatments, it will improve the wellbeing and health of the bear. Thank you Dr. Anwar and Dr. Serena, we will make sure their health continues to improve and they are able to enjoy their nutritious food. See you again!
Video by Chiew Lin May Sun bears do vocalize with a different type of sound. Watch how Little Logan react when he encounters danger. Video by Chiew Lin May What will happen if the forest without sun bear?! Let see the important role of sun bear and how they protect the forest ecosystem. Video by Chiew Lin May Sun bears love hanging out in a tree, as sun bears seem to like to do when it rains. Video by Chiew Lin May "Beyond the bound of joy!" Logan and Wawa were play-fighting on the tree! Looks how agile they are! Text by Nithisha Nair (Intern student, University Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus) Photos by Chiew Lin May As I introduced previously, here continues the story of our three musketeers. Romolina, Logan and Joe are now in fence training to prepare them for the forest enclosure. It took the trio 7 days to pass the fence training inside the training pen. On the first day, the observation began with Romolina, who immediately makes her way into the training pen. Fruits and honey were laid in a trail leading to a pile in the centre with the intention of luring the cubs out and giving them comfort. Nevertheless, it was pointless, Romolina being the explorer that she is made her way out by herself and explored the cage, ignoring the fruits completely. Upon sniffing the corners of cage, she earned her first zap, but that did not deter her from continuing her exploration, it was not until her second zap that she became wearier and alert. After that it took a lot of effort to get Romolina back into the training pen, she would climb around in the den observing the pen from afar no matter what food we used to lure her out. All things aside, all it took to get her back out was dead wood and she happily made her way out digging and rummaging. The observation proceeded with Joe on the second day. He had his eye and taste buds stuck on to the trail of honey and fruits towards the centre. When that was finished, he roamed around the cage earning his zaps, which eventually led to him suckling on his paw in the water container. His zaps were an obvious lesson to him though, after a few days in the pen Joe was smart enough to claw his food away from the hot wire very slowly and carefully. He showed amazing progress and seemed to be the best out of the trio. On the third day it was Logan’s turn to train. He was nothing short of Joe in following the trail, he licked every bit of honey left on the ground with none to spare. But once he got zapped, he was the hardest to get back into the training pen. Eventually with help he was able to come back out and learn to claw food away from the wire. After the three were used to the training pen and was able to explore on their own, they were put in the training pen together in hopes that they would encourage each other to explore their surroundings, and when that didn’t result in a very positive outlook, they were let into the training pen with their integrated buddies, to know more about integration do read our blog titled ‘Catch Up with Our New Friends’! Upon being integrated and provided with dead wood, it was clear that the trio were more comfortable in the training pen. They were also seen clawing their food from under the fence, proving that they all passed indoor fence training with flying colours. Thus, it was time for outdoor fence training. The first day of outdoor fence training, also known as their release to Pen D, Joe was the first to touch ground but got zapped while exploring and was afraid after. With Romolina, she ran up the enclosure but went into the training pen after getting zapped, she then proceeded to explore the area below the ramp. Last but not least, upon exploring Logan got zapped, in a panic he rushed his way to the top of the enclosure completely forgetting about the wires and getting zapped several more times. When he reached the top, he climbed on a tree vocalizing while refusing to come down. The trio remained at the bottom of the enclosure exploring and occasionally pacing. That was until Wawa, another one of our bears were integrated with the cubs in the enclosure, she managed to guide Logan to the top of the enclosure, and eventually Romolina followed. After that the two were more than comfortable to remain at the top, exploring, digging, climbing, playing with the water from the sprinklers and sun bathing, they even refused to go back home for two nights! Joe was a tough shell to crack, while the two was living their best lives in the enclosure, Joe remained suckling and staying at the ramp. No amount of integration was able to bring Joe up, eventually we decided to try a new tactic, as soon as he set foot on the ramp, we closed the guillotine door so he would not run back in, and then we encouraged him to explore with treats thrown on the grass. It worked! With two days of that, he eventually made his way up the forest enclosure, and once again with the help of our amazing teacher, Wawa, Joe was guided to the top, on his 13th day with outdoor fence training he was finally able to properly explore the enclosure and we could not be happier! Fence training may seem extreme, in some cases even cruel, but in our case, it is vital and completely necessary to ensure that our bears do not escape once they are released to our forest enclosure. And as we all know; the forest enclosure release is an important step towards their journey in being released to the wild! The voltage of our fence is always monitored and ensured not to be harmful to our sun bears.
So here continues the journey of our trio towards their happy ever after! |
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