Those who have been volunteers at Matang in the past will, of course, know the sun bears well. Four of the bears, Bernie, Corrine, Situ and Jo, used to live in the quarantine area and were moved into a large, outdoor area in January 08. Videos of the sun bears’ first steps into their new space can be viewed on our website. Since these bears moved, we have employed our volunteers to carry out behavioural monitoring of all the sun bears here. Matang is attempting to rehabilitate its sun bears, which involves training them out of unnatural behaviours, such as stereotypy, and trying to illicit and increase natural behaviours, such as climbing, breaking into logs and rotting wood, and foraging. We have been making changes to their enrichment, husbandry routine and feeding schedule, all the while monitoring their behaviour, to see if we are succeeding in changing and improving their behaviour. Our record climber thus far is Situ, who climbs now to 13.5m on a daily basis. We are slowly increasing the height at which food is hung to tempt the bears ever higher.



In the eight months that we have been able to monitor the bears, we have seen great improvements in their behaviour. All are comfortable climbers, with Situ excelling, all enjoy a meal of insects, an idea that visually repelled some of them when first introduced, and overall, the frequency of foraging has increased and stereotypy has decreased. Our bears also frequently display mating behaviour, culminating in successful pregnancy. We still have a long way to go, but are greatly encouraged by our initial data. It appears possible to teach sun bears natural behaviour, or more simply present the means to allow them to express what does, indeed, come naturally. It is also possible to decrease stereotypic frequency – our next challenge is to see if we can eliminate it. Our volunteers will continue to help us in this challenging mission.
The prize for Most Improved Bear is, at this stage, definitely awarded to Jo. When first moved to the outdoor enclosure, Jo refused to leave the night den area and face the open air for a number of weeks. She then progressed to venturing out for a day, but then seeking the comfort of the night den for the following two or three. She was very meek, lacked confidence and would steer well clear of the other three bears. Now, Jo is as keen to enter the outdoor enclosure as any other bear. She climbs with ease, forages for most of the day and shows great enthusiasm for tearing apart any wood in her presence – even iron wood platforms do not withstand her efforts. She has also forged a great relationship with Bernie. It is quite common to see these two bears play fighting and rolling around with each other, often continually throughout the day. This does not seem to be tied to mating specifically, as copulation attempts are rarely seen during their interaction. Sun bears are solitary animals in the wild, but here we can see that in the right conditions, individuals can gain great enjoyment from each other’s company. It really is a joy to watch them together, particularly in relation to Jo’s demeanour one year ago.

You can see a short video of Jo and Bernie in their night den on our website homepage clicking on the video link www.orangutanproject.com

Labels: Borneo, matang, rehabilitation, sunbears