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.

By Dr. Vicki Stokes -BSBCC volunteer; Photo: Dr. Vicki Stokes and Wai Pak Ng
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On September 10, Toby the youngest bear at the centre was moved from the quarantine area to the new bear house. He immediately started exploring his new enclosure and was quick to climb and discover the basket bed. He was particularly interested in the bears in the adjacent enclosures, which is a good sign that he may socialise well with other bears. For the first night Toby was left in the enclosure on his own so that he could adjust to the surroundings before interacting with other bears. The next day he was introduced to the young bears Julaini and Ah Lun in the enclosure adjacent. Toby was quick to initiate interaction with Julaini, playfully climbing on his back and following him between enclosures, but Julaini was not interested. Toby was then introduced to Ah Lun, a young female and they really hit it off. They spent the remainder of the afternoon playing and tumbling. Ah Lun is about twice the size of Toby, but it did not deter Toby from wanting to play and interact, and being a good little climber he was quick to follow her around the enclosures. There were many funny moments when Toby toppled over when standing on his hind legs to spar with Ah Lun. He is still not quite strong and co-ordinated enough to balance on his hind legs, but he will quickly develop these skills now that he has other bears to play with. After an afternoon of play, the bears were pretty tired and retired to their beds for a nap after some food. The following morning, all three bears cuddled up together in a basket bed, followed by an afternoon spent playing. Toby is settling in really well to the bear house – he is exploring, climbing, eating well, resting and interacting nicely with the other bears, all important for his development into a confident and independent bear. 

Text and photo by Wai Pak Ng


Last month was a busy but a fruitful month for all of us in BSBCC. At first we have Ah Lun and Julaini come to our centre. Then, we accepted Kudat and Panda. We were pretty much nonstop on rescuing these caged sun bears until recently we having another three bears which add up to 19 bears in our centre!
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The three latest rescued sun bears I mentioned above are Gutuk, Linggam and Toby. They are all males but come from three different age group: old, mature and young cub. Gutuk and Linggam used to house at our facility (the old bear house at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre) before BSBCC was set up in 2008. They were sent to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park few years ago due to lack of adequate space and resources to taking care of more bears. However, things are different after the setting up of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. With the establishment of BSBCC, we have our state of the art new bears house and another state of the art forest enclosure. This is time to rescue more caged sun bears and let them have a better living environment especially in the forest enclosure.