A volunteer's diary - 2 weeks in BSBCC (part 2)
By Hiu Yeat Har
March 18, 2012
Cleaning the bear droppings is not a hard job at all. Most bear poops are not stinky because the bears at BSBCC eat vegetables and fruits. Due to this 'herbivorous' diet, the bear poops are mostly fibre or liquid based. Tao and I do not ...have problem with poops though some may think they are smelly and disgusting. Anyway, all the bear dropping are given back to the nature as natural fertilizers as we usually toss them at the nearby forest floor. We also feed some of the bears here with ginger plants as food supplement or we sometimes use them as enrichment for the bear cubs. The bears like to eat the ginger plant leaves while the stalks are not their favorite. However, we can replant the stalks and they can grow again.
March 19, 2012
Mamatai is one of the female bears in the new bear house. Because her house is close to the kitchen area, so we see her more often than any other bears. I always think she has a character; she looks more like a human than a bear. I saw her shook the grill bar door twice. I could sense her frustration. Sometimes she just leans against the door, looking at us, telling us something that we don't really comprehend. I wish I knew bear words, I wish I could mind communicate with her and understand her thought and I wish most she could go back to the wild and lead a normal llife. And I wish most the world is still the same as it used to be, surrounded by green and filled with fresh crisp air.
March 20, 2012
It's not fun to be in this small cage. Trust me, you don't want to stay in there for long, not even for a minute especially under the sun. Imagine people put the sun bear in this cage for years. What do you think the cage will do to the sun bear?
March 20, 2012
Today is the last day for the traveler volunteers. It's time to say goodbye again after nine days working together. Adieu!— with Rebecca Price, Daniel Majilir, Wendy Phillips and Cliph Harman.
March 20, 2012
I finally got the shot of the sun bear's tongue. Sun bears have very a long tongue which allows them to get their food in deep holes. One of the bears called Bermuda in the new bear house always gets its porridge in a ball. And there is... a hole on the ball from where Bermuda sticks its tongue in and gets the porridge out with its tongue. It's always fun to see him eating his porridge with his front feet holding the ball and his long tongue getting the porridge out from the ball.
Well done Bermuda!
