My Sun Bear Adventure
Text by Priya Colville
Photos by Chiew Lin May
My name is Priya Colville and I am from Scotland in the UK. I had just finished studying animal collections with conservation when I started my two week volunteer placement at the centre. Having seen lots of documentaries about Borneo and its wildlife I knew that I wanted to volunteer and that it would help expand my knowledge of in-situ conservation work. After searching through the internet I came across the BSBCC, discovering the story of how it began and with the great reviews from other volunteers I knew it was somewhere I wanted to volunteer at.
Once I arrived I quickly realized the heat and humidity was something I had never experienced but luckily never struggled with that much throughout the two weeks. After arriving at the airport I was introduced to Mark from Ape and my dorm mate Celeste, both were incredibly friendly and easy to talk to, already making me feel at ease. I then met Sumira from Ape and some of the team at the centre to complete my induction before starting. The two weeks went very quickly but I enjoyed every second of it. Some of the best parts included being involved with the Oms annual vet check, learning more about the conservation strategies in Borneo from Dr Wong and the staff and being able to make and distribute the enrichment by collecting the dead logs filled with termites from the jungle, creating Sigalungs snack stick and the digiripipes and observing the bears interact with the enrichment such as Panda with the barrel the scared Amaco due to the noise.
