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Text and Photos by Chiew Lin May  Both male bear cubs, Nano and Noah were likely taken from their mothers and kept in tiny cages as illegal pets. When they were rescued from being illegal pets in 2016, Nano was very stressed, shy, in pain and was too fearful with the outside world,  whilst Noah was found with his milk canines crushed off for use in the illegal pet trade.  The two little cubs have had a very exciting few months! Both have moved into big dens filled with natural enrichment, and treats which keep them stimulated and healthy. This is one of the steps for the rescued bears to acclimatize themselves to living in the forest and to be given an opportunity to explore the environment and develop the skills they need to survive in the wild. Once the door opened, Noah start peek out from the door!  Noah made his way over to an area with dried leaves and straight away started to stand on his hind legs and grab everything around him! Noah is the outgoing and joyous bear.  Then after twenty minutes, Nano paused and was alert before stepping towards the new enriched dens!  Noah try to ask Nano to join this big playground !!  He would skim around the dens, curious about what was surrounding him - The natural enrichment!! It was such a glorious sight to see! They roamed freely and adapted quickly to their new home. After rescue from an illegal pet, the beautiful smile on Nano when he realizes he is not alone !  Nano- have fun!!  Noah is a good, natural leader. He creates a calming and energetic atmosphere around him. He will encourage Nano to be brave and play. He became cheeky whenever he saw Nano starting to pace near the door, then he would try to push Nano and start an epic play fight! Noah did not give up and would teach Nano to fight back!  Slowly, Nano followed Noah’s footsteps, learning to be a bear again. They learned to trust each other!   Is lovely to see Nano relaxing which he deserves after all he suffered.   They still love having fun in each other’s company.  Nano stays close by Noah and learns important skills as he watches him forage for food.   They have dead wood to dig with, bear balls to play with, climbing structures to climb, fire hose baskets to forage with, a hammock to take naps in and dried leaves to roll with. They wrestle, play, forage for food, sleep at the platform and share enrichment together. Both getting stronger and more confident by the day.  Today, they wrestle, play, explore and even sleep together. They were completely in their own world!  It makes us feel sad when see these rescued sun bears suffering from pet trade. But we realized what an amazing thing it is to see how both their tragic pasts were now behind them. The important thing is Nano slowly has gained his confidence, overcome his fear and is enjoying himself every single day with his best pal, Noah. For sun bears, Noah and Nano’s lives after the horror of being kept as pets has been more than they could have hoped and now they are living the lives they were meant to live.
Well done Nano and Noah!
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Text by Gloria Ganang and photo by Tee Thye Lim The BSBCC is on its way to construct its second bear house that will be able to occupy 16 bears. This new bear house will be surrounded by a 1.21 ha forest enclosure. However, some parts of the forest enclosure are swampy and have no trees for the bears to climb. How do we make use of the space? With the help of ideas from Arkitrek and hard work by the Raleigh International volunteers, our future enclosure is now equipped with a playground for the bears. Check out these pictures!  Hanging bridge made out of reclaimed wood materials and fire hose Text and photos by Ade Kurniawan In the past few weeks, the BSBCC has been quite fortunate to receive two different groups of volunteers (Raleigh and Camp Borneo) to help with several construction projects in the centre (designed and supervised by Arkitrek interns, Adam Leigh-Brown and Maryam Gomary). Not an easy task as both groups had to complete their projects while battling Borneo’s sweltering heat and sudden torrential rains. Not to mention the occasional pig-tail macaque and orang-utan harassment!  Adam (in black) and Maryam (in grey), the two Arkitrek interns Raleigh Another group arrived on the 22nd July to continue the work done by the previous Alpha 4 group. To recap, the Raleigh volunteers have been focusing on the construction of several large enrichment structures which will be used in the future forest enclosure. Supervised by Adam and Raleigh project leaders, these volunteers spared no time and went straight to work! |
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