'Trapped in solitary confinement and immensely stressed': Borneo's sad sun bears caged for tourists' entertainment

• Sun bears being kept in tiny cages at Tawau Hot Springs Recreational Park
• Lonely bears spend day after day pacing back and forth their metal prisons
• Dehydrated, they have no water and have drink from a hose from warden
• Now rescuers want the 'stressed' bears moved to a conservation centre

By Richard Shears for MailOnline

Published: 07:46 EST, 1 October 2015 | Updated: 08:50 EST, 1 October 2015

His paws scratching against the metal of the bars that surround him, the small bear lifts himself up and opens his mouth as the man with the garden hose pipe approaches.

Water gushes out and the bear gulps it down as it is aimed at his mouth through the cage - the only way it receives anything to drink.

This is the sad, unnatural way, the thirst of two sun bears is quenched at a Borneo recreation park, a daily routine that they have endured for years in cages that wildlife activists say are far too small.

Dehydrated: A thirsty sun bear gulps down water sprayed from a hose which is aimed at his mouth through the cage - the only way it receives anything to drink

Caged: Borneo's sun bears pace back and forth non-stop in empty confinement in these tiny cages and as a result they suffer immense stress

‘Their treatment is terribly cruel,’ says Jennifer Yeap of the Malaysian Friends of the Animals which targets abuse and exploitation of wild animals across the country.

‘They pace back and forth non-stop in empty confinement in these tiny cages and as a result they suffer immense stress.

‘And, like so many other zoos and wildlife theme places it’s not about animal preservation - these poor creatures are there to entertain the tourists.’

All day, every day, week after week, month after month the bears pace up and down their cages, stopping occasionally to clutch hold of the bars and stare out at the trees that surround them.

The Tawau Hot Springs Recreational Park, in the Borneo state of Sabah, is just 10 minutes drive away from the Yuk Chin Mini Zoo which, as a result of MailOnLine’s exposure of the cruelty of animals kept there, was closed down by the authorities earlier this month and the ‘inmates’ were rehoused.

Now a campaign has been launched by the Malaysian Friends of the Animals to free the sad sun bears from their tiny cages and see them placed in an open enclosure at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.

Trapped: Day after day, week after week, month after month, the bears pace up and down their cages, stopping occasionally to clutch hold of the bars and stare out at the trees that surround them

Lonely: The bears are trapped inside the cages and are put there purely for tourists' entertainment. Now there is a campaign 

‘The two bears we are very concerned about have been kept at the recreational park since they were infants,’ said Ms Yeap. ‘Their lives are just miserable and their diet is shocking.

‘They are fed mostly bananas when their natural diet takes in many more fruits, termites, small mammals, birds and vegetables.

‘And there is the water situation. No water is readily available for them. They have to wait for a staff member to approach with a garden hose and squirt it into their mouths.

‘They don’t even have the companionship of one another. They have one cage each, side by side but completely separated and in those cages they pace up and down, to and fro all day.’

Added to the distress of the animals is the fact that their small cages are surrounded by trees - their natural environment that is so close, yet so far.

Such is the concern about the bears that the Friends of the Animals group have been joined by another wildlife conservation team, the Friends of the Orangutans, in a desperate plea to the authorities to free the bears from their miserable quarters and rehouse them in an environment where they can climb trees and enjoy a varied diet.

Mr Upreshpal Singh, director of the orangutan group, told MailOnLine today that he had personally witnessed the bears pacing up and down in tiny cages and ‘keeping them in such a manner causes physical and mental distress.

‘Concerned people like myself want to see these bears displaying their wild instincts, happy, free of stress, fear and pain,’ he said.

Sun bears, which are found in the tropical forests of South East Asia, get their name from a yellow, crescent-shaped patch of fur on their chests, like the rising sun.

They are a protected species - but their continual threat is from man.

Their natural behaviour is to climb tall trees, but logging and the spread of agriculture and towns is destroying their habitat. 

Cruelty: The bears' suffering is even worse because they can see each other through the metal bars of their cages and are within touching distance of the jungle and their natural habitat

Happier times: Sun bears are meant to be kept in their more natural habitat, climbing tall trees, but logging and the spread of agriculture and towns is destroying their habitat

Worse, the animals are hunted down for use in traditional Asian medicine, their bile, spinal cords, blood and bones being used as ‘cures’ for baldness, rheumatism, and cancer.

Their paws are used in soup and their meat is eaten by people in remote jungle villages, while in some cases young animals are kept as pets after their mothers have been killed.

‘Just helping to free these two poor animals in the recreation park will be a big step forward to helping others like them,’ said Miss Yeap. 

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