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On 2nd and 3rd of April 2019, BSBCC was invited by the Sabah Wildlife Department to join the 15th Meeting of The Asean Working Group on The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and Wildlife Enforcement (15th SWG CITES-WE) exhibition at Hotel Four Points, Sandakan. Today, 4th of April 2019, BSBCC was honored to welcome the visit by the delegates. During the visit, short briefings and guided tour were delivered by our founder Dr. Wong Siew Te; the delegates enjoyed a good sharing session while went up to the BSBCC viewing platforms to observe the rescued Sun Bears in the forest enclosure. Thank you for visiting us and we hope that the visit can help us to promote BSBCC. Let's save the endangered species together!
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Yesterday on the 31st of March 2019 marked another achievement for Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture, Sandakan Campus as both parties successfully organized a programme called as Sun Bear Ambassador Search. The programme aimed to raise awareness among the students and also the public members who join a charity run called as Aloha Run, which was simultaneously launched with the first programme. The programme itself actually started on the 30th of March, in which the 10 ambassador candidates visited BSBCC to gather information about the sun bear, the centre itself and the conservation effort done. The participants then involved in the Eco Wear competitions, Q&A session to gauge their knowledge about the sun bear and its conservation and also poster presentation. This programme also became the first appearance of the Politechnic Sun Bear Ambassadors (Yes, BSBCC got ambassadors from two different institutes!), featuring Mr Elton and Mr. Logavendra assisting the staffs at the exhibition, which was also participated by Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), HUTAN-Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme (HUTAN-KOCP) and Tropical Rainforest Conservation and Research Centre (TRCRC). Ultimately, despite of the challenges we faced, we can always believe there will be a bright future for the sun bear and the wildlife in general as we continuously educate and attract people to join us to love, adore, and conserve them. BSBCC was honored to welcome the visit from Primary Industries Minister YB Teresa Kok Suh Sim and her delegates, which also includes representatives from different agencies (MPOCC and MPOB), Sabah State Government, media and documentary team. During the visit, short briefings and guided tour were delivered by Gloria Ganang, Audrey Wong, and Tee Thye Lim. All of the delegates enjoyed the good weather with good sharing session while went up to the BSBCC’s viewing platforms to observe the sun bears in their forest enclosure. We are deeply grateful for the visit and the donation given to the Centre. Video by Chiew Lin May Life is meant for great adventures and best friends! 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 Marudaand 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 Integration Montom with Rungus and Fulung 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. 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。 除了每天的例行公事以外還會有些幫忙給熊的健康檢查或是協助人工繁殖計畫等等偏向野生動物獸醫療的體驗，我參加的是關於人工繁殖計畫的一部份，是要從狀態良好的公熊身上取出精子冷凍保存，以便將來要執行馬來熊的人工繁殖計畫時使用。去年在輕井澤的體驗讓我對於麻醉熊還有一些基本測量有個基礎，但這是我第一次看見在獸醫診所的看診檯上躺著的熊，有種很不可思議的感覺。在採取精子之前要先確定麻醉的深度還有動物的狀態，等整個狀態穩定下來之後才開始執行一連串的動作。感謝獸醫師還有技術師、工作人員教我很多關於麻醉、動物狀態確認、人工繁殖計畫等等的知識，也感謝獸醫師讓我用聽診器聽熊的心音，要是沒有來這次的志工我大概一輩子都沒有機會親耳聽到熊的心跳聲吧! 在兩個禮拜之中有一天的下午到了BSBCC創辦人黃修德博士的辦公室與他對談，問了自己一直很想知道的問題也聽到其他人所抱持的疑問，發現自己知道的真的太少，應該花更多時間多關心這些在我們周遭的事情才是。感謝黃修德博士空出時間讓我們問問題，能夠從該領域的專家身上得到詳細的解說真的是件再幸運不過的事! 在學校念書、考試的時候覺得長到發慌的兩個禮拜居然倏地就過了，到現在都還覺得不可置信。感謝在這裡遇見的一切人事物，特別是不厭其煩主動教我有關熊的一切的工作人員們，多虧他們的解惑還有協助我才能度過這麼充實開心又滿載而歸的兩個禮拜，再次致上我最高的謝意! 雖然不想離開不過想到回到日本之後可以跟我所有的朋友分享這一段精彩的經歷，讓更多人知道馬來熊以及其現狀就覺得很期待。如果對於馬來熊、熱帶雨林或是自然生態有興趣的人，請務必加入志工的行列或甚至只是來拜訪也好，儘管一個人的力量可能很微薄，不過多一個人關心就是多一份希望，真心希望世界上所有人都可以對除了北極熊和熊貓等動物園的明星動物以外的熊類有多一點關心才好！ 僅放上一些BSBCC的馬來熊玉照看可不可以吸引到更多人來拜訪哈哈。 後記：在志工的兩周裡面有兩天休息日，其中一天先去了旁邊的紅毛猩猩中心，之後和同行的志工參加了fireflies trip，另一天到了Rainforest Discovery Centre看到很多很多從來沒看過的鳥或是動物，我相信喜歡大自然的人一定會很熱愛這裡的一切的!! 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 Video by Chiew Lin May Did you know that sun bear has a long tongue? 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 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. After finishing the two weeks volunteering time at BSBCC, I went back to Penang and soon returned to Sabah as a volunteer for as I missed it so much! Unlike January, this time there’s no other volunteer and I will be staying at the staff house ( Bjorn Hala ). I get to work in the kitchen for three weeks and also do some enrichment. I think I consider myself lucky because this time I get to work at the platform and also outreach to Lahad Datu. I get to know more about the hard work that all the staff have done for the bears and the efforts by the keepers in the bear house. I’m really grateful that I get to work with all the staff and I am able to observe the sun bears at close quarters. They’re really cute and I’m still amazed by their size, behaviour and a lot more. I’m also really pleased that I was able to join the health check of Mamatai and Diana. I enjoyed outside feeding the most as I was able to have a closer look at the bears eating the fruit and I also get so lucky one time that I saw two bears climbing the same time. I realised how important the staff in the centre are to the bears after working with them for 5 weeks. All the keepers treat the bears sincerely and they taught me a lot about sun bears. I appreciate all the efforts given by the staff and also all the knowledge about the bears. I also want to thank my housemates at Bjorn Hala for taking care of me and taking me everywhere around Sandakan. All the lame jokes from the keepers really help and thanks to all the keepers in the bear house for treating the bears so sincerely. I’ll sure miss the time working with all of the bears and the staff. |
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