Sun Bear update

SUNBEAR UPDATE

 

GARETH VISITS THE SUNBEARS

 

Gareth and I returned to Matang Wildlife Centre on the 25^th April it was another emotional visit as now all four bears go out into the enclosure everyday without any persuasion  and are obviously very contented.

Gareth had not seen any of the work on the new cages or the enclosure and was very impressed at the standard and quality of the work.

When I left the centre in March one of the bears Jo was still not confident enough to leave the security of her cage and the other 3 bears although happy to go outside would not have any real routine and still spent a lot of time indoors, now every morning all 4 bears cant wait to go and search for their food.

 

The staff and volunteers hide food in the many logs and tree crevices also food is put high in the trees and  Corrine was seen to climb at least 8 metres to reach fruit. All 4 of the bears climb in fact as soon as they are let out the first thing they do is climb, food is being scattered all around the enclosure so they can forage most of the day. Gareth and I went to the Sunday market and managed to buy meal worms and crickets, the meal worms are put in the logs and very quickly found.

 

A monitoring system is religiously carried out morning and afternoon by the volunteers on these bears and also the other  bears that live on the hill at the other side of the centre, it is a great opportunity to learn about every individual bear, each is monitored at 2 minute intervals for ½ hour, I spent the morning with Elaine a volunteers and was delighted to see the enthusiasm she had for these animals it is great to see other people feeling such an affection for animals that some people have never even heard of.

I was amazed to see the progress that has been made towards their hopeful rehabilitation, all bears forage for most of the morning and very little stereotypic activity can be observed until at least after lunch. Corrine forages all day but Bernie and Situ are still observed to pace for most of the afternoon, I assume that this pacing will obviously continue for a long time if not for always as their life in captivity has had such a bad impression on them.

Gareth was eager to give the bears some shelter so with the help of four extremely enthusiastic  volunteers three 1 ½ metre concrete pipes were rolled into the enclosure and placed end to end to make a tunnel, topsoil will then be placed over the top to make a very cool shelter from the heat of the day. I suspect it will also be used to escape from the torrential rain as well.

 

It was very hard and extremely dirty work but a necessary and rewarding job to do, but as soon as the bears were let out that morning they investigated and went straight in it.

 Dr Wong who is based at Sepilok Rehabiliation Centre in Sabah  paid a return visit to see the bears he had last seen them a year ago whilst they were still in Quarantine cages, he was most impressed stating that their enclosure was one of the best he had ever seen.

One of the best things about all 8 bears is that very little aggression is noted I put this down to the fact that they forage all day therefore being kept occupied and contented, Bernie is so contented that he has been seen trying to mate with the females, I am sure that everyone who over the years was concerned for the future and happiness of all these bears will be happy to know that they all have a very good life now and if things continue to progress successfully over this year we may be in a very good position to seriously think about trying to release one or two of them.

 

  

February 29^th sees Jo the only Sunbear that has not gone outside into the enclosure yet venture out after being tempted out by putting honey on the ladder to tempt her down, after weeks of only putting her head out of the door she eventually could not resist the honey any more She came out backwards it was if she needed to still be able to see her den..

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.She has interacted well with the other bears within the night dens but just to be sure that she was comfortable we left Bernie inside and just allowed the girls out. She spent the first hour distressed at being locked out and clawing at the cage door to get back in but eventually ventured into the enclosure and made her way to the back wall, unfortunately she started pacing and continued to do so for the rest of the day, it was quite alarming to watch but you have to realize that it is so different for her to be outside that some stress is obvious , this pacing continued over the weekend but by Monday morning she was venturing into the middle of the enclosure to find food she was also standing her ground with Bernie not allowing him into her space while she was eating this is a good sign as he made no attempt to challenge her, she then spent the rest of the day quite comfortable with the other bears

 

 

There has been a lot of Durian and Jack Fruit around this month and it has featured quite heavily in their diets it is most certainly one of their favourite foods so by burying Jack Fruit within their enclosure this has given them the opportunity to dig to find their food, we have also hidden it in their night dens.

Situ was seen digging outside under an old log to reach some Jack Fruit and fruit was put in a tree which she reached by leaving the ground and slightly climbing the tree.

Two of the volunteers this month have enriched their night dens. We are trying to keep all the enrichment within the dens as natural as possible so by using old logs with natural holes in them we can hide their food and also encourage them to look for hidden termites.

 

 

A trip to the local weekend market over the weekend bought 400 crickets and an abundance of sago worms, the crickets and worms were put in the logs and the bears went crazy for them, I would be surprised if any escaped the bears are vey quick when it comes to finding live food

 

The bears in the other outside enclosure have also benefited from the enrichment and on-going interest that everybody is showing the bears, their food is daily put up in the trees some as high as 4 metres and two of the bears climb the tree with great ease.The trees have have 1/2 metre lines painted on them to show how high they are climbing they are exceeding the highest mark at 4 metres with ease.

 

 

 

watching these two bears climb I think they would climb to whatever height we could get the food to. all eight of the bears come out of their night dens and automatically start to forage they dig under logs and pull the earth away with their claws have all learnt very quickly it is the only way they will find food.

 

It is now about 6 weeks since these quarantined bears have had their new home and it has been amazing to see the progress, luckily everything went to plan and we had no mishaps or injuries, they are all getting used to their new daily routine and for me a year on to see them obviously so much happier, their feet no longer wet from their cage floor the fact that they can now walk properly and no longer slide everywhere also the fact that they can now search for their food in a more natural way and find live food for themselves is everything that I and so many other past volunteers wanted for them it must be lovely for them to feel the sun and rain on their backs daily.I go home for a month middle of March and return with my husband Gareth in April who has so far not had the pleasure I’ve had of seeing them released he is looking forward to returning with me, he also hopes to be able to do some enrichment work in their cages and build a hoisted platform up the trees to encourage them to climb it will be interesting for both of us to see the progress they will have made.