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I am sad to announce the death of 2 sun bears at the BOSF Samboja Lestari sanctuary in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The first is that of a cub called Wis, sadly attacked and killed by another bear while being walked in the forest. We knew that this bear was around, but we could not imagine that she would actually attack a cub. This has never happened before. We now need to catch her and relocate her to a vast forest area inland so that she doesn’t harm any future cubs. The second loss is that of an old blind bear Dawai who died of a heart attack on 30 September 2024. He was his normal self until he had a stroke and died within minutes. May Wis and Dawai rest in peace.

Enclosure J – reinforced fence foundation

Other than this sad news, the other 74 sun bears at BOS Samboja Lestari are doing well and Sun Bear Outreach continues to supervise the maintenance of the 20 forest enclosures and to help improve the welfare of the bears. Our recent biggest job, made possible thanks to the funds from the United World College of Singapore, was to reinforce the foundation of one of the fences that was threatened by erosion and land slide.

Our new project this year is to help in the slow-release of two sun bear cubs in South Sumatra, working with a rescue center called Sumatra Wildlife Center (SWC). The plan is to bring two cubs to the forest and accompany them daily until they are old enough to fend for themselves. SWC is now setting up the forest camp and the night cage for the cubs who should be brought out there before the end of October to begin their new life.

Mano – cub to be released (photo SWC)

Sun Bear Outreach just ordered 2 collars equipped with VHS transmitters and a receiver to be able to track the cubs. The cost for this material is USD 2,100 and we are hoping that you may want to participate in this adventure with a donation to help cover the cost.

Thank your interest in the sun bears and for your support, allowing Sun Bear Outreach to help improve animal welfare.

Forest camp on release site (photo SWC)

Choki, Bakar and Nur – April 2024

The 3 cubs Choki, Bakar and Nur at BOS Samboja Lestari are doing well and are now all together in a 0,7 Ha forest enclosure. They are buddies and we actually don’t see them much because they spend most of their time together in the big trees in the enclosure. The fourth cub, Wis is also doing well. She is spending more than 8 hours a day in the forest with Tori, a long term volunteer, developing her skills at foraging, climbing trees and being a bear. She is now about 6 months old and in another 6 months, when she is old enough and big enough, she will join the other 3 cubs.

Fleur in her new enclosure – April 2024

In March we finished the renovation of an individual enclosure at Samboja and then moved an older female bear called Fleur to this new home. Fleur does not like the company of other bears and for many years she was kept in a small outdoor enclosure normally used for training the bears to the electric fence. Now Fleur has a much larger space for herself and seems quite happy about the change.

Wis and Tori – April 2024

I have the pleasure to announce that our campaign to raise 90,000 USD to save an elephant called Boua in Laos was successful. I’m happy that Boua will never have to carry tourists on her back, perform tricks in front of crowds or pull heavy logs in the forest. Boua is now assured a peaceful life at the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) and she will hopefully one day become a mother and be successfully reintroduced into the wild.

A big thank you to all of you for your donations and for allowing Sun Bear Outreach to help improve animal welfare in S.E. Asia.

Nur at Samboja – Jan 2024

The 2 male cubs Choki and Bakar at BOS Samboja Lestari are doing well and are now in a 0,7 Ha forest enclosure. They will soon be joined by Nur, another cub who arrived at Samboja Lestari in December 2023. Nur is about 9 months old and is now in “forest school” with another younger cub called Wis, only 3 months old. The 2 cubs spend most of the day roaming around freely in the forest accompanied by a human mother figure, but Nur is unfortunately becoming increasingly difficult to manage and will soon have to be transferred to Enclosure B, with Choki and Bakar, who are a little older than her.

Viko at Samboja – Feb 2024

In January, we finished construction work on Middle Yard, one of the 25 enclosures at BOS Samboja Lestari, and we moved Viko and Iis into this new space. We are now renovating another enclosure for one individual bear called Fleur, who doesn’t like the company of other bears. The objective is to make good use of all the space available so that all the 75 sun bears at Samboja Lestari can have access a piece of their natural habitat. But as bears keep coming in, this is a constant challenge.

Our campaign to raise 80,000 USD for the elephant called Boua in Laos is going well. We have raise 40,000 USD so far, and if all goes as planned, we hope to have the totality by May this year. Find out more and help us save Boua on www.saveboua.com

Thank you for your support.

Choki and Bakar at BOS Dec 2023

The 2 cubs Choki and Bakar at BOS Samboja Lestari are doing well and are now about 9 months old now. They are still spending most of their days in the forest with Pablo, a volunteer who has been caring for them since July. Thanks to your donations, we have raised the funds needed to cover the cost of the construction work necessary to accommodate 2 older bears and allow Choki and Bakar to move into a large forest enclosure. Construction is scheduled to begin on 15 December and should be finished by the end of January 2024.

Our new project is to save an 8 year old elephant in Laos! Her name is Mae Boua Ngeun, she is lucky to have grown up in her natural environment with other domestic elephants in a beautiful sanctuary called the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sayaboury, Laos. The problem is that Boua belongs to a private owner who wants to sell her, but ECC doesn’t have the funds to buy her. If ECC can’t provide the 80.000 USD that the owner is asking for, he will take her away and sell her to the highest bidder. Boua would then probably end up in one of the so called safari parks in China, forced to perform meaningless tricks in a horrible environment. But if Boua stays at ECC, she will most likely have babies and be released to the wild with her family.

Mae Boua Ngeun at ECC – Nov 2023

At Sun Bear Outreach, we have made it our mission to help ECC raise the 80.000 USD so that Boua can stay there and get a chance to lead a free life. Find out more and help us save Boua on www.saveboua.com

Thank you for your support.

Brutus July 2023

Brutus Sept 2023

Since March 2023, 5 new bears have arrived at the sun bear sanctuary of Samboja Lestari in East Kalimantan, run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF). Brutus, an adult male, arrived in July. He used to be kept in a park of a town called Tarakan, where Sun Bear Outreach had built a large cage for him in 2017, for lack of being able to do more. Later he was moved to different places where he must have suffered a lot, because by the time he arrived at Samboja Lestari, the poor animal was just skin and bones, and looking miserable.

Kerin, Brutus and Loo – Sept 2023

Lou and Kerin are 2 adult females who arrived in the center in April. They too had been kept in Tarakan, under the names of Rina and Fitri. I had come across them by chance in 2017 and had done what I could to improve their welfare in Tarakan. Like Brutus, it seems that Loo and Kerin have spent all their lives in cages, but now that they are at Samboja Lestari, they will soon be able to enjoy a bit of forest.

Choki and Bakar Sept 2023

The 2 cubs who arrived at Samboja Lestari are Bakar and Choki. Both are males, both are about the same age, probably born in February or March 2023 and both have been hand raised. They are orphans but have bonded with Pablo, a volunteer who cares for them and spends his days in the forest with them. The cubs are healthy and best buddies, playing and enjoying the forest most of the day.

Choki and Bakar Sept 2023

Unfortunately, by the time the cubs are 1 year old, it will become increasingly difficult to walk them in the forest and they will need to be moved to a forest enclosure. But the center is now in over capacity and all the forest enclosures are occupied. The plan is to split an old enclosure called Middle Yard in 2 in order to accommodate 2 older bears who are now in Enclosure B, thus allowing the cubs to move to B. The cost of splitting Middle Yard and building 2 new dens is estimated at 8500 USD.

Funds are difficult to get these days, so your donation, however small, will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Lou before coming to BOSF

Since the beginning of 2023, we have focused our efforts on doing maintenance on the sun bear enclosures, renovating cages and building climbing structures for the bears at the rescue centres of both the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) and the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI). Of all the improvements done in the last few months, here are the ones that have significantly improved the welfare of 3 sun bears:

Lou’s new cage at BOSF

At BOSF in East Kalimantan, we renovated 2 large outdoor cages and their holding dens allowing BOSF to accept 2 new adult female sun bears with the names of Lou and Kerin who arrived at the centre in March 2023. Lou and Kerin have spent their life in cages, sometimes in very bad conditions, so their present situation is a great improvement to what they have known. The next step will be to socialize them with other bears at the centre to allow them to have access to one of the 16 large forest enclosures.

Coki in his new cage at OFI

At OFI in Central Kalimantan, we also renovated a large cage for a new young bear named Coki who arrived a few months ago at the rescue centre, allowing him to enjoy a decent size cage while waiting for a better option. Unfortunately, the 4 enclosures that we’ve built at OFI since 2014 are not sufficient to hold the 18 sun bears in its care, so we are now discussing the option of building 2 new forest enclosures. Once we have a precise plan and quote for the new enclosures, we will need funding and hope that you may help us.

As always, our drive is empathy and our motive is to give the best possible life to sun bears who unfortunately can’t be released back to the wild.

Coki’s new living space at OFI

New Enclosure P – 1 Ha

Sun bear enclosures at Samboja Lestari

The new 1 Ha forest enclosure at Samboja Lestari in East Kalimantan is finished and it has been the home to a group of 5 bears since 29^th November 2022. A big thank you to all the donors of Sun Bear Outreach for making this possible.

Deni and India in Enclosure P -2022

Corridor between Bottom Yard and Training 3

I have spent the month of October and November 2022 at Samboja Lestari to finish this new Enclosure P and to do a lot of maintenance on all the other 16 enclosures after a long 2 years absence. I also got a corridor built linking Bottom Yard and Training Enclosure 3, which will allow us to introduce Lucy and Alaya from Bottom Yard to Sulis and Adele from Training Enclosure 3. We hope that the 4 young girls will get along well so that they can be moved to Enclosure A where 3 male bears are waiting for them.

Lucy and Alaya discovering Training 3 after using the new corridor

Fence construction of new enclosure – July 2022

I’m happy to write that the construction of a new large forest enclosure at the Samboja Lestari rescue centre in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, is progressing steadily under the supervision of Philip Stubley, our long term volunteer. In the end, in view of the increasing number of bears at Samboja, we decided to make the enclosure bigger than planed: it will be near to 1 Ha in size and will be the new home for 5 bears.

Construction of dens for new enclosure – July 2022

The holding capacity of the existing 19 outdoor sun bear enclosures at Samboja Lestari is of 68 individuals, but the sanctuary now has 71 bears. Overcapacity means that some bears do not have access to outdoors, which is a concern regarding animal welfare. The construction of a new 1 Ha forest enclosure will thus allow 5 individuals to live in respectable captive conditions rather than just 2 or 3 as originally planned.

Map of new enclosure – July 2022

Of course the cost is greater and has now gone up to 50.000 € instead of the 30.000 € originally budgeted. But Sun Bear Outreach should be able to pay the extra cost thanks to our generous donors. Thank you all for making this possible.

Map of new 0,6 Ha enclosure (in blue)

I’m am happy to announce the construction of a new large forest enclosure for 3 sun bears at the Samboja Lestari rescue centre in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Construction work is scheduled to begin mid June under the supervision of a volunteer who will be spending 3 months on site to make sure all goes well.

This project has been in the pipeline for 2 years now but was on hold because of the COVID pandemic. It’s now finally going to get done and we would like to thank all the donors of Sun Bear Outreach who make it possible.

I have been in France since August 2020 and have not yet been able to go back to Indonesia to pursue the projects of Sun Bear Outreach. I had bought a ticket to go back in July 2021 but had to cancel the trip because of the COVID pandemic. Now, even if I could perhaps find a way of entering Indonesia despite the Omicron wave, I am unfortunately unable to travel because I’m accompanying my mother in her end of life. I’m with her in her house 24/7 to give her peace and comfort as she slowly withers away.

I am thus sorry to say that the activities of Sun Bear Outreach are on stand-by for the time being, but they will pick up again as soon as I am free to go back to Indonesia.

Thank you for your understanding.

Patrick Rouxel