(MY) Sun bear staring at sunset

[Guest guest]

For Wong, it’s a bear necessity

New Straits Times

01 Jul 2006

 

HE’S a walking encyclopedia on bear facts. There’s little this man hasn’t

observed or learnt after years in the field tracking one of the country’s

least known mammals.

 

And what Wong Siew Te doesn’t know about Sun bears, he’s been trying hard to

find out in the wilds of Sabah’s most unreachable interior.

 

In the fourth year of his PhD programme with the University of Montana, Wong

has been studying the effects of selective logging on bears and pigs in the

forest.

 

He’s studying what bears and pigs need in order to survive in logged forests

and how the effects of logging on these creatures can be minimised.

 

A typical day in the field starts at 8am and ends at 5pm — but it’s no

paper-shuffling job.

 

There are bears to trap and that’s no easy feat.

 

" They walk pretty quiet for their size. They’re like ghosts. They come and

go without being noticed, " he explains.

 

Then there are blood and parasite samples to take and radio collars to fit.

 

Collared bears must then be tracked and observed and data kept and studied.

 

It’s a job that leaves him tired and sleepy but Wong wouldn’t have it any

other way.

 

For the young man who showered all his love on a menagerie of pets as a boy,

the chance to study animals in their natural state has been a dream come

true.

 

And for Wong, there’s no other animal that needs that bit of attention and

passion more than the Sun bear.

 

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Sun bear staring at sunset

New Straits Times

02 Jul 2006

Elizabeth John

 

THERE are nine protected animal species in Sabah, among them the Sun bear

and the Sumatran rhino. But logging and poaching are threatening their

survival. ELIZABETH JOHN warns the habitat is shrinking for the Sun bear.

 

Goldilocks sure got a couple of things wrong when it came to bears.

 

Breakfast isn't porridge but honey, fruits and beetles.

 

Beds aren't too big, too soft or even just the right size. They are high up

on a tree branch with birds or in a comfy spot between roots at its base.

 

And those walks in the forest weren't about leaving breakfast to cool.

 

They were far more functional, in fact, crucial to the survival of the

forest and its wildlife.

 

Malayan Sun bears feed on succulent jungle fruit like those of the

strangling fig and wild durian trees and defecate miles away, dropping the

seeds in a new spot, where they grow into trees.

 

This is how the jungles regenerate and feed the scores of animals that

depend on it.

 

But logging, poaching and a lack of knowledge about these creatures are

threatening their survival and the forests they roam.

 

The future doesn't look too bright for the Sun bears, says researcher Wong

Siew Te, who is from Penang.

 

The burly, spiky haired Wong, with a lifelong love of wildlife, has spent

eight years studying these bears in the dense jungles of the Ulu Segama

Forest Reserve and Danum Valley Conservation Area, 81 kilometres from Lahad

Datu on Sabah's east coast.

 

And the more he studies this elusive creature, the more anxious he is about

their future.

 

Sun bears make their home in the lowland tropical hardwood forests of

Southeast Asia. These same forests, a bumpy one-hour flight from Kota

Kinabalu and a rough three hours off road, are also highly valued for their

timber.

 

So the Sun bear's habitat is shrinking fast, says Wong.

 

Logging not only reduces suitable habitats for bears, it also brings in

legal and illegal hunters.

 

Hunters can travel hundreds of kilometres during a hunt and shoot several

animals at night with the aid of spotlights - a hunting practice banned in

many countries, says Wong, who's now studying the bears for his doctorate

thesis.

 

Bears are poached for body parts and captured as pets. There are a few

restaurants in the peninsula where tourists can still eat bear meat and

paws, says Wong.

 

In Sabah, the small forest patches give Sun bears little chance of survival.

 

The largest unbroken stretches of forest rest in the Sabah Foundation

Concession area and the Imbak Valley conservation area. However, poor

logging practices and poaching plague the area.

 

In Sarawak, too, there are concerns about fragmented forests and hunting of

bears.

 

And everywhere, the expansion of oil palm plantations reduces suitable

habitat for Sun bears, he says.

 

Although bears could learn to adapt by feeding on oil palm, crop raiding

could give rise to shootings.

 

Some Sun bears may be luckier than others though. These include those in the

enormous, unbroken and fruit rich forests of Taman Negara.

 

On the whole, Sun bears receive little conservation attention in any country

within its range, says Wong.

 

This is mainly because they are rarely seen and superstars like rhinos

command attention.

 

Basic research on Sun bears has the highest priority for any bear species

worldwide.

 

In the area where he has been studying, Wong found that their numbers are

low.

 

Here, they are outnumbered even by the endangered orangutan.

 

Although ours is a tropical rainforest that has a 365-day growing season,

food isn't as bountiful as one would imagine.

 

Eight years ago, Danum Valley, the pristine heart of the Ulu Segama reserve,

experienced a severe famine which lasted a year. Two old radio-collared

bears Wong was tracking for his study, died of starvation.

 

Because bears have low reproduction rates and long parental care for their

young, their population would take a long time to recover from such

unsustained hunting, explains Wong.

 

Once the Sun bear is eliminated from the ecosystem, the role they play will

be gone forever.

 

Forest regeneration and dynamics will also be changed forever.

 

And like Goldilocks, we may never see these bears again.

 

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