Malaysia: All out to save the sun bear
MEI MEI CHU The Star 20 Aug 19; PETALING JAYA: As alarm bells ring with Malaysia�s Sumatran rhino population plummeting to a single surviving female, one wildlife biologist is racing to set up a captive breeding programme for the critically-endangered Malayan Sun Bear. Malaysia�s leading sun bear conservationist Wong Siew Te (pic) is targeting to launch the programme by 2025 at his Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center (BSBCC) in Sandakan, Sabah. �Forest fragmentation is becoming increasingly serious, more poachers have access to forested areas and I�ve seen places that used to have lots of sun bears now no longer have any, � Wong said in an interview. He said the empty forest syndrome was growing in Malaysia. The extinction of sun bears, a keystone species, would have ripple effects on the survival of other wildlife and plants in the forest, he said. �Without sun bears, the forest will be very different... It is my mission to make sure that there are sun bears living in our forests, �...