Keep calm and cheers to Simone
It all begins with an idea.
Text by Seng Yen Wah
Photos by Chiew Lin May & Seng Yen Wah
Simone is a sweet-natured sun bear and is one of the favourite bears of people who have met her. She is an 11 year old adult female bear and has a wide and beautiful chest mark which looks like a webbed foot. Before Simone arrived at BSBCC, she was kept with a male sun bear, Along, in a Mini Zoo, Hot Springs at Tawau. On 2016, the owner surrendered them to Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and they came to BSBCC together.
Simone captures people’s hearts with her irresistible attractiveness. Simone is always chilled and calm. She is an observer, preferring to stay somewhere high, to be able to observe her surroundings. She is always curious and wants to get involved in whatever is happening at that moment. For this reason, she is always sitting on the water container to get a closer and better view of the activities around her.
Simone loves her enrichments and always looks forward to them. She enjoys everything that is offered to her. You can see how much she enjoys the enrichments as she climbs, explores, tears, bites and enjoys.
To build up some muscles.
Hanging Aussie Dog Ball and Tubes
Simone is tearing coconut.
Hooray. Tree branches.
On the 28th of December, 2018, Simone finally took her first step into the forest. Now, she is confident to explore there, she spends more time observing her new environment. Due to the limited forest enclosures for the bears in our centre, she takes turns to go out to the forest enclosure with Sigalung and Kudat. This is because they are staying in the same row of dens. Sometimes Kudat is in a bad mood with Simone, especially when Simone gets the food or enrichment first, yet, this seldom bothers Simone. Along, the bear who came to the BSBCC with Simone used to be her neighbour. We exchanged Along with Sigalung. However we found both Sigalung and Along showed negative social behaviour with Simone during integration. Therefore, they are separated into different dens.
It is very interesting to observe Simone's behaviour. She likes to sit on the food holder and enjoys her food by holding it with both front paws. However, when offering her food on a tray, she likes to dig everything out and this is how she got the gold digger title. Simone is a slow eater. Sometimes she will not eat the food immediately, she will wait and begin to eat when she is ready.
After four years of rehabilitation in our centre, Simone has improved a lot. She is enhancing her skills every day. It makes us happy to see Simone enjoying her life and learnimg to be a wild bear.
Betung, the Sun Bear - Five months progress
It all begins with an idea.
Day 177: Give Betung the best of everything to speed her recovery.
Wow looks how Little Betung has grown! She had made great progress in the forest and learns the essential skills needed to survive in the wild. To her, freedom means to able to do whatever she want, explore, climbing favourite trees, forage for food and be herself! She loves this adventure.
It will be a long road to recovery. This illegal pet trade - unable to express natural behaviours, left the bears traumatized and alone. There is always a reason for HOPE. Now she is safe and lives a second chance at a happy life, thanks to people like you!
Sun bears belong in the wild and should never be kept as pets! You can show your care by adopting Little Betung here:
Beautiful transformation, is not it? ❤️
Please share Little Betung's story!
Fulung Siesta!
It all begins with an idea.
Siesta in life!
May your days be filled with laughter always!
"This is the kind of place we would love to spend most of our time here where we can explore, foraging, climbing favourite trees, resting, and play fight with bear pals! Please help protect our habitat!" - The smiling bear, Fulung!
Betung & Pill Millipede
It all begins with an idea.
Day 169: Pill millipede! How yummy does this look?
Did you know – Sun bears are the smallest members of the bear family. Sun bears are opportunistic omnivores which means they eat a variety of fruits, plants, figs, insects, and even honey! Sourcing wild forest food is important so the rescued sun bears can become accustomed to a variety of food sources that they can forage in the forest.
Little Betung is curious and wondered how pill millipede taste like?
Kipaku is Taking a Power Nap in Forest
“It definitely was a perfectly cozy day for my Tuesday sunbathe time!” ❤️
The warm weather makes Kipaku ready to take a nap in the forest.
There are many who still want to destroy their forest for their own greed.Please take a stand to protect the remaining rainforest!
Follow the link to learn more about sun bears and our work here: https://www.bsbcc.org.my
Betung Enjoys Forest
Day 166: A guardian of this little bear!
She is one of the survivors of the illegal house pet whom lost her mother since in young age. Sun bear cubs remain dependent on their mother for 2 to 3 years. She was weak and vulnerable and in desperate need of our help. After 5 months of the rehabilitation process, Little Betung is fulfilled in the forest home! She enjoys learning the life in the forest - enjoyment of lives with many small pleasures!
Slowly, she realized that nothing bad was going to happen to her anymore. She is now a happy, well-adjusted bear cub.
She requires lifelong care and deserves a future that will be a bright one. To make her dream a reality –buy a special gift (nutritious food, health care, enrichment treats & love). Please be a guardian of this little Betung! You are made a world of difference for her!
Dodop, the Orphaned Sun Bear
Dodop was rescued by Sabah Wildlife Department in 2nd June 2016, where she was found kept as a house pet in Singgaron villager, Ranau district. Demand from the wildlife trade leads to sun bears being illegally stolen from the wild to become pets, attractions in zoos or used in traditional Asian medicine.
Having been kept long in captivity and habituated to people, she has lost the natural instinct to survive in the wild. Fortunately, with the help and care from our team, Dodop has finally learned what it is like to be a wild sun bear. She loves hanging out on the tree! Please share her story!