Text by Dr. Yeoh Boon Nie
​Photos by BSBCC

​2019 was a challenging year to initiate a new line of health care for our bears. Dental health in captive wildlife is a common but easily overlooked health issue. Last year we equipped ourselves with the basic equipment required for dental work.
 
In the past year, we have conducted a detailed dental examination, scaling and polishing for all resident sun bears. We noticed some positive behavioural changes in bears that received dental treatment. The bears are now confidently eating, smiling and playing with a healthier set of teeth.

​​You must be wondering why they have such terrible oral health.

​Before and after dental scaling:

Sun bear dental check-up. We found one of the female bear had chronic gingivitis and dental tartar with numerous loose teeth.​

It is ridiculous to assume that human food is suitable to feed wildlife.
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“If Bruno could talk, it would surely say the food I gave was delicious. He ate chocolate,”
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/06/10/i-only-wanted-to-save-the-bear/
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​What would you do if you were locked in an extremely small and barren cage? Bar biting is one of the stereotypical behaviours developed in some of our bear’s prior to being rescued. This behaviour has weakened the tooth, and eventually has resulted in a tooth fracture. The damage caused on teeth is permanent with the treatment likely to be extraction. Without a functional canine tooth, eating a normal diet is greatly affected.

We are glad that last year we started looking into these issues; pin pointed the problems and scheduled the treatments. The work is ongoing and many dental treatments still require expertise from our vet dentist.
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Please support our work. Your donation will be channelled towards purchasing more suitable dental equipment, treatment costs for the bears, and funds to seek expertise assistance.

Text by Nursyahidah Binti Hassim
Photos by Chiew Lin May

Hola! My name is Nursyahidah Hassim. I am 25 years old and I am from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I graduated in Conservation Biology from the University Malaysia Sabah back in 2016. Before volunteering here in BSBCC, I have been working on insects (especially on butterflies) while in university and when I was working at the Poring Butterfly Farm in Ranau. The reason why I came here to volunteer is that I really want to gain new experiences working with mammals. Since I already have experiences working with insects, I also want to experience and learn how to manage mammals. So, I thought that BSBCC is the perfect place for me to go!

On the 5th of Dec 2019, me and my friend, Yen Chi arrived at the  BSBCC for our safety induction. We met Lin May (one of BSBCC officer that who is in charge with the volunteer programme) and had our safety induction in the staff room. After we had our safety induction, she showed us around the BSBCC area. We went to the bear house and met all the staff there. All the staff are very friendly and funny. Throughout the volunteer programme, I have gained tons of new experiences. My volunteer session lasted for 2 weeks. Every volunteer was assigned with their own respective buddy (Senior/Junior Keeper). The purpose of having a buddy is that our buddy is the one that will assist us in our work throughout the programme. I was assigned with a junior keeper named Roger. He was helpful, nice, funny and it was really fun working with him. He assisted me with all the works that had been given to me. During the volunteer programme, I have helped cleaning the bear cages, preparing food for the bears in the kitchen, feeding the bears outside (forest enclosure) and inside the bear house, assisted Roger in fence checking, doing integration between bears (between Linggam and Suzie, Kuamut, Jelita and Manis), helping Dr Boon counting bear respiratory rate and making bear enrichments. I also assisted Dr Boon with the bear health check. During the health check, I helped counting the respiratory rate and the heart beat of the bear. It was really fun participating in the bear health check session because I got to observe and feel the sun bear more closely. Moreover, I also got to see Dr Boon performed dental scaling on the bear’s teeth. Making enrichment is also one of the most fun activity to do. It was satisfying to see the bears playing with their enrichment so that they do not get bored inside their den. It was really interesting to see the bears using their long tongue to angle for the food (peanut butter/honey/dog biscuits/leaves) that had been stuffed inside the Aussie ball. 

Being involved in this volunteer programme has opened my eyes for the importance of sun bears in our ecosystem. Sun bears search for honey in the forest by tearing up tree trunks that create nesting sites for birds, thus becoming the engineers of the woods. They also help to maintain the fertility of the soil implicitly while digging for invertebrate for snacks. I’m sad that poachers failed to see the value of sun bears in our ecosystem just for the sake of money. I want the world to see the importance of our little engineers in the wood as I did, and I highly recommend people to join this programme.
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So, I would like to say thank you to BSBCC for giving me this amazing opportunity to be a part of the Centre as a volunteer. Good luck for the future and see you guys again soon. I miss you guys and the bears!

Video by Chiew Lin May

Sun bears climb trees to forage for food, rest or protect themselves from predators.
​Ah Bui is an arboreal bear. You may wonder what is it that makes Ah Bui such a good climber?

Text by Kam Kai Cheng
Photos by Chiew Lin May

Hi, my name is Kam Kai Cheng from Ipoh, Perak and I am currently 22 years old pursuing a degree in Public Relations in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. It is my honor to serve as a volunteer in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre for two weeks. My reason for joining the voluntary program is to learn more about the Bornean Sun Bears and get step closer towards the nature in Sepilok rainforest. It was an overwhelming experience throughout the weeks in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre as I learned bear habits and their health conditions. Our daily routine in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre is to clean the bear house in the conservation centre. The purpose of cleaning the cages is very important as it helps to ensure the bear can live comfortably and in good health. If cages are not properly cleaned, the bears may get unwanted diseases from the bacteria. All of the volunteers are assigned to a buddy which is an experienced keeper. My buddy was Jeniur which is from Kota Kinabalu and his nickname is BoBoii. He is very experienced in this field of work and he always likes to be funny around us. He taught me a lot of things throughout the weeks and it was an opportunity where I can learn from him. 

Sometimes, we do get the chance to work in the kitchen, where we need to prepare the food for the bears. The task that we need to do in the kitchen is to ensure that all the bears will get the nutrients and diet they need. Besides that, sometimes we do have the opportunity to do fence checking and outside feedings. Fence checking and outside feeding was very thrilling as we need to walk into the jungle to finish our tasks. We need to make sure that all the fences are running well so that the sun bears can not escaped in to the wild. It is always adventurous to do a jungle walk where we will see monkeys hanging around and insects that we could never see in the city. During my volunteering, all of the bears in the Conservation Centre had a health check with the in house veterinary, so to ensure that all the bears are in good health.

​Overall, I can say that the experience and knowledge I gained through the voluntary program will be unforgettable and memorable. It is not something that we can learn in a city or town but in the forest enclosure, the knowledge and experience we can get is unlimited. Therefore, I am glad that I had the chance to experience all these by volunteering myself in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.

Text by Ng Jie Min
Photos by Chiew Lin May

Hi, I am Ng Jie Min from Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang. I am currently 21 years old and studying Bachelor Of Communication (HONS) Public Relations in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman,Kampar Campus. I do love nature and wildlife, so I decided to join BSBCC and serve as a volunteer in this semester break. This is my first time doing volunteering with wildlife and animals. In these two weeks, I learned a lot about the smallest bear in world, which is “Sun bear”. I also helped to clean their cages, feeding, prepare foods, make enrichment, and participated in their health check and did fence checking. 
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Thanks to have my buddy Pradeep, who introduced me to the sun bears. I now know that every sun bear has their own name and story behind them. In the food preparing sessions, it was complicated because every sun bear has their own food diet. Mostly we need to prepare a lot of fruits and vegetables for the bears, such as bananas, watermelons, papayas, pumpkins, cucumbers, mung beans, dog biscuits, bak choy, sweet potato and coconuts

​Sometimes I also joined the keeper to fence check even though it is raining day. Yuckssss, it is muddy and leeches are everywhere! But I still try to face it because I know that this is a valuable lesson that I cannot get to learn in my life anywhere else. Making enrichment for sun bears is the session that I love the most. Enrichments can make those bears happier, exciting and reduce their stress. I did lot of enrichments including making Christmas present for them! 

I was also assigned to observe some bears during their integrations. The most unforgettable moments was when Linggam, Susie and Kuamut love to play with each other. They keep pawing and hugging each other to show their love and kindness. I even got to join Ronnie Boy’s release attempt into Pen G in Day 10. I am happy with that because I saw improvement and hard work pays off.
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I also was invited and join Dr. Boon Dental Health Check for the sun bears. BJ who is a male sun bear in the centre weighs 38kg. I helped to get its temperature every 5 minutes during the health check and helped it to clean his teeth. I gained new knowledge about sun bear’s teeth and it was fun to learn about their health. We also had a discussion session with Dr.Wong Siew Te who is the founder and CEO of Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. He shared with us his own story and how he met sun bears. He spends his whole life time taking care those wildlife animals. So the name “Sun bears PaPa” really matches him a lot!

One of the tasks that I really enjoyed it was having a communication session with the visitors who come over BSBCC. They ask a lot about the sun bear living style and environment. I have enjoyed this and could tell them what I actually learned here. I also shared with them the experiences of being a volunteer for two weeks’ time in the centre.

Every lunch time, I went to the nearest cafeteria to have lunch. The cafeteria was clean and the boss was friendly. Dinner is usually at the resort Paganakan Dii. The most favourite meal I love here is the lamb chop that cooked in the traditional Paganakan flavour. Yummy Yummy Yummy!
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I am a person who is used to live and stay in city areas. So in these two weeks, I learned a lot about nature and got step closer to the nature. I was very happy here because all staff in the working area is so nice and friendly. I promise myself that if I get chance to come to Sandakan again, I will be back to BSBCC to serve as volunteer again. I felt peace of mind when I saw all the sun bears in a peaceful environment. Thanks again to Dr. Wong Siew Te and staffs for teaching me such valuable lessons about wildlife in the 2 weeks’ time.

It all started with a young boy from Bukit Mertajam with a deep interest in the wildlife surrounding him. 
Fast forward a few decades, to where he is currently a proud CEO and founder of a sun bear conservation
centre in Sabah, the only centre in the world which focuses on the welfare of the Bornean Sun Bears. And
he is still willing to travel around to spread awareness, doing what he does best: to share his stories and
experiences in sun bear conservation. 

The last two months of 2019 have been a hectic journey, with talks given to live and television audiences in and out of the country: Awareness talk at The North Borneo Rainforest Festival (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah), “熊爸雨林” talk at the National Museum of Natural Science Taiwan (Taichung, Taiwan), “The Soul of the Rainforest - Sun Bears” 雨林中的靈魂- 馬來熊 talk at Dong Xing Elementary School 新竹縣竹北市東興國民小學 (Hsinchu, Taiwan), “Biodiversity of Sabah, Borneo” talk for Wild Bird Association of Taiwan 台灣野鳥協會(Taichung, Taiwan), the making of wildlife documentary “黑熊來了” “Black Bears coming” TV show (China TV CTV studio, Taiwan), and Awareness talk for Pelangi Publishing Group’s 40 cents charity carnival (Bangi, Selangor).
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Keep the inspiration juice flowing, Dr Wong!

Text by Ng Xin Hao
Photos by Chiew Lin May

I am Xin Hao , I am 17 years old and I am from Penang, Malaysia. I started my very first time volunteering for animals at Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in Sabah, Malaysia. Getting to know what a sun bear is and learning their behaviour was a very crazy and awesome experience.
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The first thing I noticed at the bear house was the bear cage. The cage is very clean and does not have a bad and heavy smell. We soon get into the daily routine like cleaning the cages, preparing food for the bears, feeding the bears and creating enrichment for the bears to play. For me, I am creating a swing for Mamatai, the fattest bear in the bear house.

Before getting to be a volunteer there was an interview with the staff at BSBCC to receive more information from us volunteers. When I was being interviewed, I always asked about getting physical contact with the bears. But the staff there told me there is no physical contact or touching the bears because the bears are given a second chance to be released back to the wild where they belong and we do not want the bears gets habituated.
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After volunteering for 4 days, I was informed that I am going to assist in the medical check for the bears! And I was lucky enough to go on four medical checks with Dr. Yeoh Boon Nie. You could see Dr Yeoh is cleaning the bear’s teeth and taking blood sample from the bear.

​We even have a chance to meet Dr Wong Siew Te himself. We asked him a lot of question about the sun bear, BSBCC and how he started before BSBCC. Dr Wong answered our question one by one with a story behind. A huge thank to all the staff, Paganakan Dii and other volunteers for making my first time experience in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre a great time.

Video by Chiew Lin May

Text by Lok Yen Chi
Photos by Lok Yen Chi & Chiew Lin May

My name is Yen Chi and I graduated from University of Malaysia Sabah in 2016 with a Bachelor in Conservation Biology. I was born and grew up here in Sandakan. Having a career out of conservation made me miss working in the field very, very much.  That was the moment that I decided, maybe I should go volunteering, since I have sufficient holidays to do so. Plus, BSBCC was one of the places that I have never volunteered before. So, why not?

As much as I am fascinated by the sun bears here, I found the people here are even more fascinating. These people could have chosen careers that are way more comfortable than going into the forests looking for dropped collars, travelling long distances to rescue bears, dealing with wild, sometimes unpredictable animals, and working in challenging environment, but they did not.

Instead, they chose to help the helpless, easily exploited animals like the sun bears, who will not be able to return the favours. These are the people whose intentions are genuine, worth respecting and looking up to. Be it the officers, researchers, veterinarians, staff, senior or even junior keepers, whatever they do here is for the sake of the bears’ welfare and well-being. They go way beyond what is in the job scope just to make sure the smallest bears in the world get the rightful care and rehabilitation trainings. This has doubled my already deep respect towards the people in wildlife rehabilitation.

Another highlight of my volunteering here is to see how the once scared-of-forests Ronnie Boy taking his first steps to go back to the wild. It was the sixth day of fence training when I first observed him, where he barely even dared to stick out his nose to sniff the air outside. However, at the time of me writing this, he is already brave enough to approach the entrance to the forest enclosure, stay there to look and sniff around without getting scared easily.

I am also very glad that they allowed us to help a team from UMS to check the mist and harp traps for their medical researches. To be honest, entering the forest at night was not my favourite thing to do but after this opportunity, I guess it is not as bad as I thought.

Last but not least, though it is a bit cliché, I need to express my gratitude towards Bithrenley, my buddy keeper. I am very honoured to be your first buddy in your bear-keeping career. Hopefully the bears will love the Beary Tunnel we made (Idea courtesy of Bit). Thank you too to Dr. Wong, Dr. Boon, Lin May, Thye Lim and Pradeep for constantly teaching me about sun bear conservations. To the other keepers, Jeniur, Roger, Adneen, Adrian, David, Danny, and Mizuno, thank you for sharing your amazing stories, laughter and skills with me. Of course, not to be forgotten, my friend, Nursyahidah Hassim for coming all the way from Kota Kinabalu to volunteer with me this time.
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Lots of Beary Love,
Yen Chi

Happy New Year everyone! 

We have done it! The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre and I have achieved most of the targets to which we directed ourselves in 2019, thanks to you and your support and the conscientious, hard work of all the BSBCC staff, volunteers, and intern students! I would like to say a huge THANK YOU and a send a big bear hug to all of you!

Although BSBCC has been through an amazing year, the wildlife and environmental crisis across the world and Malaysia have not. In 2019 we experienced the worst wildfire season in the rainforest of the Amazon, Sumatra and Kalimantan; many ancient and pristine rainforests in these areas suffered total destruction in a very short period of time. These destructive fires decimated and entire wildlife populations. The situation is even worse in the southern hemisphere, where Australian bushfires have burned for months, killing an estimated 500 million creatures, including the iconic koalas. “Apocalyptic” is the word I would use to describe these bushfires. All of these extreme weather patterns and disasters are related to global climatic change and human activities on our planet.

Back home, the situation is not getting any better.  In 2019, Malaysia and the entire world mourned the loss of our last male and female Sumatra rhino, Tam and Iman. It is estimated that only 200 wild Malayan tigers and 300-500 sun bears are left in Peninsular Malaysia. In Sabah, the situation of Bornean pygmy elephants is worsening as more and more elephants are being put to death as a result of human-elephant conflicts. Pangolin seizures by the authorities have reached a record high. Poaching, illegal snaring of wildlife for the body part trades and pet trades are out of control in Malaysia. We can even find sun bears and other protected wildlife species being openly sold online in the social media and kept as pets in condominiums! We must stop all the illegal madness that is harming our wildlife in this New Year. Because if we fail, they will disappear forever, just like the Sumatra rhino in Malaysia.

It has been 24 years since I began work with the Malaysia Nature Society in the field of wildlife conservation. Throughout this period, I have studied how we conserve and manage our wildlife in Malaysia and have noted that all of our larger wildlife species, who require a lot of forest and resources, are slowly leaving us for obvious reasons: Large scale deforestation for timber, followed by agricultural activities to produce food for global markets are destroying wildlife habitats to the point of no return. The situation is further exacerbated by poaching of the remaining wildlife, the widening of gaps between rich and poor, the popularity of e-commerce, and weak legal enforcement. However, things have recently begun to change. The Malaysian government is allocating more efforts to improve the condition of wildlife conservation, and more small NGOs, individuals, and member of the general public are joining forces to help conserve our remaining wildlife. 

I am blessed to have been able to work with sun bears and to lead the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre for the past 12 years. As a small, grassroots NGO specifically focusing on sun bears in Sabah, we have managed to grow from a two-person team into a 30 member staff organization, with close to 5000 volunteers coming to help us over the past 12 years. We have rescued 61 sun bears and feel confident that we have almost completely eradicated the problem of illegal possession of sun bears as pets in Sabah. Last year we were only required to rescue one pet sun bear, a sign that awareness and education are effective in dissuading the general public from keeping sun bears as exotic pets (I do hope this is a good sign as the local protection of sun bears might also reduce the number of wild sun bears being illegally captured and kept as pets). We have released three rehabilitated sun bears in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, in April of 2019. This release event was accompanied by Dame Judi Dench, and was documented in the documentary Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure! As for visitors to BSBCC, 2019 attained a record high of 84,495 visitors from all around the world, with approximately 10,268 school students and teachers, and 1,199 communities who joined our outreach environmental education programs around Sabah. BSBCC and I have also received several awards recognizing our achievements, among them the Kinabalu Award given by the Sabah State Government.

I thank you for your support and help in making us what we are today. We have proven that a small grassroots NGO can contribute significantly to the conservation of our wildlife and environment. Therefore I urge you to continue to support our work and other small, grassroot NGOs who make the world a better place and who began small, but may eventually grow as much as BSBCC has done. Lastly, I hope all of us will BE COURAGEOUS ENOUGH to speak up for the environment and for wildlife who do not speak human language and do not have a vote during elections. We HAVE TO learn from our mistakes of the past and make sure we DO NOT repeat them. With the many crises we face now across the world, the year 2020 is the NOW or NEVER year! Together WE CAN make a better world!

Once again, I wish you a Happy New Year! May the New Year bring happiness, joy, peace, and safety to all beings on Earth!​