Wong Siew Te was born on 16 May 1969 in Bukit Mertajam, Penang,[3][4] and grew up in Sungai Bakap[5] with eight elder siblings, four brothers and four sisters.[6] He spent much of his childhood in the vicinity of creeks, looking after animals and helping his family's fruit orchard cultivating durians, rambutans, mangosteens and coconuts.[5] His interest in animals began early, influenced by his father, who looked after injured or fallen birds. In middle school, he learned how to breed birds and fish. He also played music and was a member of a school orchestra.[7] Wong attended Kin Sen Primary School from 1976 to 1981 and Jit Sin High School from 1982 to 1987, both in Bukit Mertajam.[8]
Wong studied veterinary science at Taiwan's National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) after high school in 1989, graduating in 1992.[8][4] During his time there, he joined the Bird Watching Club, where his interest in wildlife and conservation deepened through bird watching.[9] Wong transferred to the University of Montana in 1994 to study wildlife biology and there he met Christopher Servheen who presented him with an opportunity to study sun bears.[10] Wong graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1997 and Master of Science in 2002, authoring a thesis on Malayan sun bears in Borneo. He went on to study for a doctorate in Fish and Wildlife Biology from 2002 to 2011 at the same university, researching bearded pigs in lowland rainforests of Borneo.[4]
Career
From 2002 to 2005, Wong co-chaired the Sun Bear Expert Team for the IUCN/SSC Bear Specialist Group, a network of voluntary experts within the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).[11] After visiting the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, he conceived the idea of establishing a similar facility for sun bears.[9] In 2008, he founded and became CEO of the BSBCC.[12] The centre, located in the Sepilok–Kabili Forest Reserve, works in partnership with the Sabah Wildlife Department, the Sabah Forestry Department, and the NGO Land Empowerment Animals People to rehabilitate sun bears in a forest enclosure that mimics their natural habitat.[4][13] In May 2020, Wong hosted virtual tours of the BSBCC to raise awareness and support for sun bear conservation during the COVID-19 pandemic.[14]
Honour and recognitions
Wong in 2014
Wong has received numerous awards for his dedication to wildlife conservation, in particular his work with sun bears.[15] Among the numerous tributes is Villa Number 2 at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge, which bears his name in recognition.[4] He was featured as one of the wildlife heroes in the book Wildlife Heroes: 40 Leading Conservationists and the Animals They Are Committed to Saving.[16] Wong received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the NPUST in 2014 for his exemplary work in wildlife conservation.[17]
In 2016, Wong received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) in Australia for his life's work in sun bear conservation in Southeast Asia.[18] In 2017, he was named a "Wira Negaraku" or "My Country Hero" by the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department,[19] and later a CNN Hero by global news network CNN.[10] In 2018, a genus of Asian stick insect, Planososibia siewtei, was named in his honour.[15] In 2020, author Sarah Pye published Saving Sun Bears: One Man's Quest to Save a Species, a biography of his conservation efforts, written as part of her creative arts doctorate at UniSC.[20] The book not only documents his personal journey but also draws attention to largerissues relating to rainforest ecosystems.
Wong, Siew Te; Servheen, Christopher; Ambu, Laurentius; Ahmad Norhayati (2005). "Impacts of fruit production cycles on Malayan sun bears and bearded pigs in lowland tropical forest of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo". Journal of Tropical Ecology. 21 (6). Cambridge University Press: 627–639. JSTOR4091915.
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