SLEUTHING AROUND THE BEAR MARKET

by Cable, Callum & YamunaJourney into the market of sorrow

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Deep in the jungles of Borneo, a catastrophe is stirring. The world’s smallest bear is dying out. Now classified as endangered, the Malayan Bear (A.K.A the Sun Bear) needs our help. In this sleuthing trip you will learn about the money trail, bear market/bear trade, and bush meat. These are some of the main problems contributing to the diminishing of the bears.

The trade of the endangered Malayan Bears, also known as Sun Bears, starts with a hunter, who is most likely desperate for money. The poachers usually travel in a group and use a one shot pistol called a Lantak to kill the bear. If the bear is needed alive they use a modified lasso to trap the bear. Then the bears go to an illegal market where, if the bear is alive, it is bought for about double what they pay the hunter and then shipped to places like Jakarta, Singapore and sometimes

China or Korea. There where they would be, sold for more and used in medicines. The bear market in Indonesia is a big problem for the Malayan Bears. The Sun Bears are forced to live in cages or if they get killed parts of the body are sold. The claws are a sign of protection to some so they are often sold, also people sell the paws to people who make Bear paw soup which is very expensive at about $200. The live Sun Bears may be sent to a bear farm in China for

traditional medicines and even within Indonesia some drug stores have sold traditional Chinese medicines that use Sun Bear bile. Even though bear markets are illegal they are still held underground or very secretly. Two questions I had where, why, even though the bear market is illegal, is it happening and how do we stop it? Part of the reason is obviously money which leads us to our next topic the money trail!

EVIDENCE 1

EVIDENCE FILE

“The Indonesian bear market is the largest illegal market in South-East Asia, sending bears to places such as China and Korea.”- World Society for the Protection

of Animals (WSPA)

Inside this black market you are able to purchase the bear for around 100,000 - 800,000 Indonesian Rupiah, depending on how far it has travelled. The bear itself usually comes from area’s in East and West Kalimantan. This is the process of shipping a sun bear:Step One: The bear is captured, usually by poor people or Dayak’s. Step Two: The Dayak’s sell the bear, for about, Rp 100,000-300,000 (US$ 11.00-33.00).Step Three: The buyer ships the bear to Jakarta, during this process the bear’s value increases.Step Four: The bear is bought, later to be shipped again, or to be locally killed or farmed for it’s bile.Quite often you will find the sellers of bear products in Asia don’t know about the impact they take on the bear population. One of the reasons people buy the bear’s products is that they believe it will give them strength, which brings us to our next topic. Bush meat.What happens to the sun bear after they are sold? Well, you could make an educated guess that not very good things happen to them. People catch them and either sell or keep them as pets while some get turned into souvenirs. Others use their parts to make traditional Chinese medicines and even sun bear delicacies! In most bear farms the sun bear lives a

life of torture. In the article ‘An Un-bear-able Trade’ it states that in this certain bear farm a bear would have it’s bile extracted twice a day. Usually when the bear is having it’s bile extracted it would gnaw on its paw because the pain is unbearable. Even sun bear cubs have to go through torture once they are bought, in the same article it tells that one sun bear cub took a swipe at the farmer causing the height of it’s cage to be lowered so it could only lay on it’s back. In other cases the sun bear is bought and shipped (smuggled) into other countries ex. Korea where it’s paw is to be chopped off and used in restaurant dishes. Some tribes may skin them and keep their skulls like they were trophies. Most sun bears that end up in the market may never experience the wonders of their habitat.

As you have learned Sun Bears are poached against the law everyday. They go through unbearable pain for traditional medicines. They are bought from the hunter for as low as 100,000 rupiah. The law needs to be enforced, the Sun Bears are disappearing and unless we change our ways we will destroy these majestic bears.

Our Main References Include:www.wspa-international.org/.../bearbileindonesia_tcm25-2712.pdf,

http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/