AsiaLIFE

Whether kept as pets or served up in paw soup, bears in Cambodia are under threat. Ellie Dyer goes behind the scenes at the Phnom Tamao rescue centre to learn about the efforts to save them. Photography by Dylan Walker.

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The carefree bear cub playing with an old coconut is one of the lucky ones. Like all the bears living at the rescue centre at Phnom Tamao zoo, the seven-month-old motherless cub has been saved from a horrific fate.

Bears, including Sun Bears and Asiatic Black Bears, have become a lucrative commodity in Cambodia and Vietnam. Thousands are stolen from their native habitat each year. If they survive the journey out of the wild, the bears can be sold to meet global demand for exotic pets or be butchered for bear paw soup.

Still more are confined in illegal bile farms in Vietnam, where 18-gauge needles can be used to extract digestive juices from bears imprisoned in coffin-sized cages. The animals are sometimes put in “iron corsets” that hold in place a catheter to constantly drain their bile, which in Chinese traditional medicine is thought to reduce fevers and detoxify the body.

Though many never escape, some bears are confiscated thanks to public tip-offs and efforts from Cambodia’s Forest Administration and wildlife NGOs. The cub now happily licking up ants at the rescue centre was taken from a soldier in Preah Vihear province who, according to local media reports, was attempting to sell it for an estimated $1,000 - likely to a Vietnamese bear farm.

Many rescued animals end up at Phnom Tamao’s bear sanctuary, which is run and supported by international NGO Free The Bears (FTB).

“The bears have all been recovered from the wildlife trade. We have several amputees and others have psychological issues,” says FTB Vietnam country head Luke Nicholson, during a behind-the-scenes tour of the centre.

The damage that can result from mistreatment is clear. At the centre’s indoor bear house, where the animals come to sleep or relax in hammocks, a young Sun Bear called George sucks his foot while emitting a soft chuckle. Rocking himself while nuzzling up to the bars, the psychologically-damaged bear has never known his mother and is desperate for attention.

“As bears are large powerful animals, many mothers are shot in order for wildlife traders to capture their young cubs, who are often smuggled out of Cambodia to become status symbols for powerful people or worse - they end up in small cages where their bile in painfully extracted,” adds Nicholson.

In a large outdoor enclosure, a female bear is kept apart from her kind, having grown up with no idea how to interact with her species. Still more bears forage for food despite having had limbs amputated after being caught in hunter’s snares.

“A lot of animals die in snares … from infection or stress,” says Nicholson.

Though most bears being cared for at the rescue centre will never be let out due to their injuries, another NGO called Wildlife Alliance is piloting a release programme in Koh Kong province.

Two Sun Bears called Sloat and Sopheap, who were rescued from traders in 2008, are now living in the Cardamom Mountains. They are being kept in a one-hectare forest enclosure in order to learn how to live as wild animals before their release. Supplemental food will be given to the bears – who will be wearing radio collars and tracked - as they readjust to independence.

But for those that remain in Phnom Tamao, FTB ensures that captive bears are nursed back to health and kept happy with plenty of activities.

An on-site vet clinic treats both incoming bears in poor condition and patches up those hurt in scrapes. A $36,000 quarantine area capable of holding 12 bears at a time is being built on site and is expected to open early this year.

Members of the public are also lending a hand. The centre has a scheme that brings volunteers – who have in the past included veterinary students, filmmakers and photographers – to help for up to eight weeks at a time. FTB also runs a day programme during which visitors work as keepers by cleaning out enclosures and making food for the animals.

While the baby bear cubs are fed on yoghurt, older bears are treated to a mash of beans, bananas, dog biscuits and honey, stuffed inside bamboo sticks and topped with morning glory. The sticks are hidden around the enclosures by volunteers, encouraging the bears to forage for their food.

Education also forms a key part of FTB’s work. Schoolchildren from both Cambodian and international schools are taught at the organisation’s Discovery Centre about how they can help protect and conserve Cambodia’s remaining bear populations. Thousands of students pass through the centre each year.

“Education is a critical tool for species and habitat conservation globally,” says Nicholson.

“Communities are often unaware of the status of various species or that their actions are driving the decline of habitat and species.”

For more information or to volunteer visit: freethebears.org.au or wildlifealliance.org.

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