Kota Kinabalu: Wildlife Department Director (Sabah) Datuk Dr Laurentius Ambu said the three-month-old female cub found by a resident last week could have been illegally reared."When our officers went back to the place at Damai to ask about it the next morning, no one owned up to it," he said.Damai is a mere 10-minute drive from here.Ambu said those found guilty of rearing or possessing protected species such as the Borneon sun bear could face a mandatory jail term between one month and a year.
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The presence of the 4kg cub was known when the dog belonging to the house owner Blue Lum, 38, kept barking on Thursday night.The cub is now at the Lok Kawi zoo. It will be sent to the Sepilok Borneon Sun Bear Conservation Centre.Blue Lum saw what looked like a puppy in his car porch."I left it alone and went in to watch television," he said.
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When the barking continued, Lum's son went out to look and was shocked to discover there was a sun bear cub outside.Lum said he immediately asked his son to come back into the house and then called the Civil Defence Department.Kota Kinabalu Civil Defence Department officer Mohd Hazle Shah Hamid said a call was received at about 10pm and officers were immediately despatched to capture the cub."It was not violent when our officers carried it and put it in a cage."We suspect the sun bear cub was being kept by someone as it was unlikely to have wandered here from the forest," he said.The sun bear or honey bear is found in the tropical rainforest of peninsula Malaysia and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
