We had a bit of a surprise during sun bear husbandry yesterday (Fri 13th) when Ting San came walking out of the jungle and inspected our cleaning work in the night dens of the sun bears on the hill. She was very casual in her exploring, as if she was trying to look inconspicuous and as if she belonged there. It was tempting to give her a broom and point out the areas we hadn't attended to yet. However, she continued on her way and walked back off into the jungle, followed swiftly by Richard and Apai Jugah.

It transpired that Ghanti, apparently tired of only having her son for company in the jungle, had visited the large orang-utan enclosure that morning and assisted the escape of both Ting San and Ali by offering them a branch carefully broken and lowered into the enclosure to pull them out. The youngsters literally jumped at the opportunity for a day's outing.

Ali spent most of the day in Ghanti's company, close to the centre at the feeding platform area. We were able to observe them, and it was a pleasure to do so. It was the first time we have seen Ghanti's son separate significantly from his mum - for most of the time he was metres away from her wrestling with Ali. Ghanti was keeping a careful eye on the duo from below, but she was clearly uninterested in joining in with the rough and tumble play. She was quite determined to keep Ali out as a play-mate for her son for the day though, as she aggressively chased the orang-utan keeper, Eddie, out of the feeding platform area when he dared to approach Ali to tempt him back.

At the end of the day around 4pm, Ali was more than happy to come back into the orang-utan dens with his favourite keeper, Apai Sandi, and it looked as though Ghanti had enough of him by then too! One child is clearly more than enough for an orang-utan mother. It was very nice of her to bring the youngsters out for the day though. Ting San remains at large.

As of Monday (16^th), the four youngest orang-utan are off into the jungle for a 10 day stretch, which will be the longest period of time they have spent in the jungle. So Ali will be back in the forest then, though this time in a slightly more controlled, supervised way! It will be great if Ting San will stay out until the team head out to the ranger station on Monday, and she can also stay with the orangs for the duration of their rehabilitation training this month. Ting San has missed out on previous trips as she has bitten a couple of the keepers and become a little hard to manage safely. However, if she is in the forest already, it should be a simple matter of providing food for her and providing a safety net should she need to use it.

Enjoy the accompanying photos of Ali, Ghanti and baby sharing each other’s company in the forest.

Little Fat Bear arrived at Matang in April 2010, and quickly elevated to the status of my favourite bear. Partly this is because she is exceptionally cute – her name describes her perfectly and though she is full adult, she is the smallest sun bear I have seen. The Bornean sub-species is smaller than the sun bears of mainland South East Asia anyway, and sun bears are of course the smallest of all the bears, but LFB, with her short legs and dumpy stature, takes ‘small bear’ to another level. Needless to say, she is also cutely rotund. However, it is her personality more than her appearance that stole my heart.

Up until April 2010, LFB had not known a happy existence. For 16 years she had been kept in a small, bare cage with a concrete floor. No enrichment, no variety, high stress and high stereotypic frequency characterised these years. 16 years is easy to say, but think about what you were doing and where you were 16 years ago, and all that you have done in the intervening years. LFB was simply standing in a cage for all that time. Her teeth have also been clipped, a horribly painful process carried out no doubt to ensure she would be a safer pet as a cub (I have often wondered why people do not opt for a goldfish, should they want a safe pet, rather than a bear). You would expect a bear with this background at age 20+ to be a broken individual, massively stressed with little in their behavioural repertoire other than pacing backwards and forwards.

However, this bear soon revealed that she retained many natural behaviours – in her naturalistic, outdoor enclosure she excelled at foraging, climbing, digging, tearing into wood for termites, and was even seen sleeping up in the trees one afternoon, a natural behaviour not expressed by any of our other captive bears, from whom we have been trying to elicit natural behaviour for years! She proved very adept at opening internal cage doors, and would often let herself and fellow bears out of their individual cages to explore the whole night-den area. She has such a calm, insatiable curiosity, and it still amazes me that she did not lose this through the years she was kept in such poor captivity. Her instances of stereotypy are minimal – when she finishes foraging and eating, she prefers instead to lean against a comfortable tree and take a nap. It is always a pleasure to observe her.

A few weeks ago, two of the keepers were talking to each other in front of the quarantine area, when a hairy mammal passed between them. ‘How did that dog get in here?’ one questioned (they are known as ‘dog bears’ with good reason). ‘IT’S A BEAR!’ the other replied – this is the actual exchange that took place. It transpired that while climbing a tree that was a little small, LFB climbed high enough to pull the tree over far enough to reach a tree on the outside of the enclosure wall. She then went for a calm, curious wander past George and Peter’s cages (who were not at all calm), past the hornbills and gibbons, and back down the road to the small bridge. Though slowly being surrounded by keepers, she showed no panic, and seemed pleased that they had bought a jar of honey with them (they are also known as the ‘honey bears’, also with good reason!). She happily followed the honey trail being laid on the floor, and wandered into an as-yet unoccupied gibbon cage. Here she was content to explore, much to the neighbouring gibbons’ displeasure and panic, and lick up every drop of honey that had been spilled to tempt her. She was then encouraged into a transport cage by the keepers and wheeled back where she came from.

All in all, it was a rather enriching afternoon for her, and for all the keepers involved of course. Enjoy the accompanying photos.