Today is a special day in Sun Bear Forest at the San Diego Zoo: our little sun bear cub makes its public debut. As of this morning you can come down and see the cub in all its high-energy glory! The cub will be on exhibit from 9 a.m. until sometime around midday, so plan to come early in your Zoo visit. (See Suzanne's previous blog, Sun Bear Cub Emerges.)

 
Born in September, our little " Bulan"Â (a translation of the birth month into an Indonesian dialect) has grown from a tiny cub to an adventurous youngster.  It recently weighed in at just over 24 pounds (11 kilograms), and has the sleek lines characteristic of a young sun bear. It is confident in its explorations of the new exhibit space, but the cub is still clinging a bit to its mother's skirts. If she gets too far away, Bulan clucks for her (yes, clucks"¦Â it sounds like a hen!) and runs to rejoin her.
 
Bulan is a very special animal, only the second Bornean sun bear born in the U.S. (the first being big brother, Danum, now at the Brownsville Zoo). In the last decade, the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) decided to focus its energies on breeding this highly imperiled subspecies of sun bear. To this end, 20 animals were imported from Sabah, the last of which arrived stateside in 2000. Since that time, only the San Diego Zoo has realized sun bear births. While this is great news for our Zoo, it's not so good for the species. I would like to see more sun bear cubs born to other facilities with Borneans as well. Developing a thriving captive breeding population may be the key to saving this species.
 
Unfortunately, there are some hurdles to real success thus far. Bears are individuals too, not machines, and their whims and predilections come into play in the captive breeding scenario. Although we had success in breeding male Dibu to female Marcella (twice), we did not have the same success with Dibu and another female, Ting Ting. Dibu was interested in her, but Ting Ting rebuffed him at every turn. We tried several things to improve her outlook on the reproductive front, but we never observed a natural mating between these bears. Until we clearly figure out the female's reproductive system, as we have done with pandas, we won't be able to rely on artificial insemination as an alternative method for instigating a pregnancy.
 
If we had more males to go around, we might have been able to offer Ting Ting another choice of mate to see if she could be enticed to breed. Unfortunately, only 5 of the original 20 bears imported are male, not enough to go around. That's why the birth of at least one male cub in San Diego is exciting: more males means there could be more success at breeding in the future. Hopefully, in the next year or two, Danum may be able to have offspring of his own in Texas! Since we are still waiting for confimation of this cub's gender, we can't say with certainty that we have a male this time around, but any cub is a welcome member of the sun bear family!
 
Another major factor in ensuring the success of the captive breeding population is ensuring good maternal care of any cubs born. Danum and Bulan have contributed to our understanding of mother-infant behavior in the sun bear by participating in our bear maternal care study. This research will allow CRES researchers to aid in the management of captive sun bears, with the goal of increasing their population numbers to buffet against continuing losses to the wild stock. Our understand of giant panda maternal care has contributed in part to the growth of that captive population, and hopefully we can do the same with the sun bear.
 
Come see little Bulan. While you are marveling at the cub's sleek good looks and its rambunctious personality, remember you are watching an animal that represents a bit of what conservation efforts of zoos have to offer, and the hope for survival of the Bornean subspecies. In that context, it's easy to see why the staff of Sun Bear Forest thinks he (or she!) is so special.

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of Applied Animal Ecology/CRES.

Here's video of Bulan.

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