The Forestry Administration and wildlife conservationists on Tuesday removed a five-year-old sun bear from a private residence in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district where a Chinese businessmen had raised the animal since birth.
The male sun bear, a rare species in Cambodia, was taken to Phnom Tamao wildlife rescue center located 30 km southeast of Phnom Penh in Takeo province’s Bati district, said Nick Marx of Wildlife Alliance, who is also an adviser to the Forestry Administration’s Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team, who launched the raid to recover the bear.
“I do not know how the [owner] obtained him. But he was in a very inappropriate cage,” Mr Marx said, referring to the 1.5-meter by 2-meter cage that the animal spent every hour in.
“The cage is quite small, and he could not really walk,” he said of the bear.
The owner refused to talk to a reporter about the bear.
But a woman at the residence, who refused to reveal her name, said her Chinese boss had kept the bear fed for years and was unaware of the law.
“We did not know that it violated the law,” she said.
Prum Nol, deputy team leader of rescue team, said the owner would face a possible fine under Article 96 of the 2002 Forestry Law, which prohibits the possession of rare wildlife by private owners. Under that law, violators are subject to a fine equal to two to three times the market value of the animal.
Native to Southeast Asia, the sun bear is the smallest bear species in the world and is listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
