Kota Kinabalu: Sun bears attacking man unprovoked is unheard of, says Datuk Wilfred Lingham, an ex-wildlife warden for three years till last September.
"I suspect in this case the bear was caught in pain in a Cable Trap and was trying to escape," said Wilfred in response to report of a Sun bear attack which killed Kotin bin Inggaou, 67, in a forest in Ranau two weeks ago.
Kotin's body was found with Sun bear claw marks Monday morning by his son and villagers, after a two-week serarch.
The report said Kotin, of Kg Niasan, had a habit of going to the jungle to gather firewood and set traps to catch animals.
Usually nylon ropes are used to form a loop in cable traps. Unsuspecting animals step into the loop, triggering a sudden snap. Either the front or hind leg is caught.
"The rope bites into the flesh and it is painful," said who was Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Development Permanent Secretary between 1991 and 1996.
"One porcupine was caught in such a trap in Tabin and only the leg was left," recalled Ligham of his experience in Tabin Wildlife Reserve. "The animal had escaped minus a leg!"
The picture of Kotin in the news report shows his left hand clutching one end of a long staff. "Maybe Kotin was trying to hit the bear caught in trap and in a provoked state, it attacked," he said.
He said he had seen a 40-50 kg male Sun bear caught in a cable trap in Tabin and the animal was really provoked.
On the other hand, he said he had also met an adult Sun bear with its young in Tabin and "they are very timid."
"Even with babies around, they run away, " he said.
"In fact they are bad mothers because I have seen a mother bear run away leaving two to three babies behind," Wilfred said.
Sun bears are intelligent creatures, according to Wilfred.
"They know how to open the freezer and take the meat," he said of his Tabin experience.
"Once, they even took a bottle of our cooking oil from the kitchen and the joke was they needed it for frying something in the forest," he quipped.
"Some even came into our lounge while we were watching TV. Another time, one came up to our resort board walk. While we ran away in one direction, the bear ran away in the opposite direction," he said.
So, Wilfred said: "Sun bears are both intelligent and timd."
What should one do when come face to face with a jungle ?
"Normally they are the first ones to run," he said. "But don't do anything to provoke them," he advised.