These rescued loveable pint-sized bears recently found a home here at Sepilok with the fantastic new Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC), which opened in 2014. The centre has full access for the disabled, and it's possible to see the bears from an elevated glassed viewing area as they climb up trees close by you. There are also telescopes set up for micro examination. There's also a gift shop that sells t-shirts, toys, and has an educational video-lounge.
So called because of the golden bracelet of fur around their necks, the bears' Rorschach-like pattern is never duplicated, varying as they do in colour from cream to orange. At a maximum of 150cm and 60kg in weight, they are are little larger than 'Paddington' and are the smallest of the world's bears. Sun bears are found throughout Southeast Asia in eastern India, southern China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Borneo, usually at an altitude of around 2700m. An average male sun bear needs at least 15 sq miles of forest to find sufficient food. They're excellent climbers, equipped with long claws to scale high trees in search of beehives. Ripping a cavity in the trunk to get to their honey, in doing so they create a safe place for hornbills and other birds to nest at a later date. They also control the forest's destructive population of termites, as they are a critical part of the bears' diet.
Across Asia the sun bear is caught and slaughtered for meat and Chinese medicine. In countries like China and Vietnam, the poor beasts are strapped in tiny cages and hooked to IVs that pump bile from their gallbladders. Thankfully this does not happen in Sabah, although the bears are still under enormous threat from habitat loss. Animals donated to the centre are first checked for diseases they may have caught as humans' pets, before being transferred to the training pen. A new arrival will learn to climb, build nests and forage before its eventual release into the wild. Sadly while we were researching, a female was struck by lightning and fell from high in a tree and died on impact.
For RM100, it's possible to adopt a bear, and there are around 30 to choose from. If you wish to volunteer here as a keeper, it costs RM7060 for a month or RM4150 for two weeks, including accommodation and meals. Contact Mr Wong Siew Te, BSBCC's founder, for more info on 016-555 1256.
