The ecology and conservation status of Sun bear in Malaysia

Wong Siew Te is a wildlife biologist and a tropical forest ecologist from Penang. He is the CEO and the Founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sabah. He conducted one of the first ecological studies of sun bear in Sabah in 1998 and continued to work on the conservation of sun bear in Sabah until today. He will talk about his sun bears ecology, conservation status and current works of sun bear in Malaysia on this webinar.

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Fun fact:

Sun bears provide an important ecosystem service to the Bornean rainforest by using their long tongue to eat termites inhabiting trees, and by spreading seeds in their poop!

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Did you know:

China’s National Health Commission promotes bear bile as a treatment for Coronavirus? Sun bears, among other bear species, are kept in cages after being captured from the wild, as the markets they’re kept in can’t breed them. Whilst their bile does contain some health benefits, synthetic replacements are readily available meaning this practice is essentially pointless. Not to mention these ‘wet markets’ where these bears are kept present an ideal environment for zoonotic diseases to spread, which is what caused this pandemic in the first place.

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Fortunately, the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre rescues some of these bears from bile markets, and has rescued 63 bears since 2008!

Join us and learn more about The ecology and conservation status of Sun bear in Malaysia.

Watch our recorded video conference here.