Two new sun bears in Samboja

HAYDEN and Bleki, the new Sun Bears at Samboja Lestari.

In June 2007, two Sun bears arrived at the Sun Bear Sanctuary of the Wanariset Samboja Orangutan Reintroduction Project. This project is managed by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS).

The two sun bears were discovered at the edge of the forest and had been reared by humans. Their owners voluntarily handed them both over to BOS.

Upon arriving at the Sun Bear Sanctuary, the two new little sunbears, Hayden and Bleki had to be placed in separate cages. Hayden was only one month old, so he had to have his own cage while Bleki who is two years old was put into the quarantine cage. Why were they separated? Because humans had already reared Bleki for almost a year, and he had been overfed and was excessively over weight.

On the other hand, Hayden’s keepers had only cared for him for three days before he was handed over to BOS. According to his previous owners, the small sun bear didn’t want to be caught when they found him at the edge of the forest in the Sebulu, East Kalimantan. One wonders what the fate of Hayden’s mother was.

It was not because of love that his finders decided to take Hayden home. They knew that bears are wild by nature. For the first two days little Hayden had been sweet and wanted to drink milk. On the third day, however, the little bear started to show a wild and aggressive nature. They were puzzled and attempted to find information about wildlife reserves, in particular for bears.

Hayden’s owners found out about the Wain River Forest Reserve (WRFR), in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. When they arrived at WRFR, they found that it could not take Hayden. The people at WRFR instead suggested taking Hayden to the Wanariset Samboja Orangutan Reintroduction Project, as it also manages a Sun Bear Sanctuary.

However, it is quite another story with Bleki, who was found at the edge of the forest by Achmad Fauzi, an industrial forest plantation worker employed by PT. ITCI in Sepaku, East Kalimantan. At the time that Bleki was found, he was in poor condition.

Achmad described Bleki’s condition: “Bleki was found during a forest fire. Little Bleki was on his own, without his mother. In the end we decided to take Bleki home and nurse him”. Achmad’s wife was also moved by Bleki’s condition. The cute body of the little bear was what attracted Achmad’s wife to care for it.


Agus, the Sun Bear care coordinator in Samboja Lestari, estimated that Bleki would have just turned one when he was found, and he had been kept at Achmad’s home and reared for a year. While Achmad had him, Bleki was forced to eat biscuits and drink chocolate milk.

“Every two hours Bleki was given a ‘kepok’ banana, and he would not eat anything but kepok bananas” Achmad’s wife said, who had often taken care of Bleki. Bleki was also washed regularly. Although his care was good and his enclosure was regularly cleaned, the small iron-barred cage was certainly uncomfortable for him.

Similarly to the experience with Hayden, when Achmad wanted to hand Bleki over to HLSW, they suggested to take Bleki to the BOS Sun Bear Sanctuary instead. After some discussions with Paramita Ananda and Ishak Yassir, the manager of the Wanariset Samboja Orangutan and Wildlife Reintroduction Project and he manager of the BOS East Kalimantan Regional Projects, were eventually able to accept Bleki into the Sun Bear Sanctuary.

When handing over Bleki to BOS, Achmad’s wife was a little upset, but she was happy that Bleki would have plenty of companions and would be well cared for.

Basically we won’t reject wildlife which is protected by the government if they are handed over by members of the public. However, we must decide whether or not to take animals based on our current capacities and facilities. The welfare of the animals must always be our priority” Ishak told us. Actually, it could be said that the facilities in the sun bear sanctuary at the moment are less than satisfactory. On 56 hectares of land, the BOS foundation must care for 52 honey bears.

[Winda | BOS]
Translated By Peter Crocket, Edited by Michelle Rangitutia