Monitoring system aids wild animal protection efforts in NE China

Since it was established in October 2021, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, which has a forest coverage rate of 97.74 percent, has seen steady growth in its distribution area and number of Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, as well as other wild animals living inside it.

Photo shows a Siberian tiger in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. (People’s Daily Online/courtesy of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration)

Thanks to a monitoring network which covers air and land, staff members working inside the national park can obtain data on the distribution of wild animals inside the park conveniently via their smartphones.

"The monitoring system can send videos of wild Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in real time. This informationized and intelligent management platform can help facilitate construction of the national park," said Feng Limin, deputy director of the monitoring and research center of Siberian tigers and Amur leopards under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, and who is also in charge of fieldwork at the research center for Siberian tigers and Amur leopards at Beijing Normal University.

In the 10 years after 2005, Feng's team installed a total of 3,000 infrared cameras deep in the mountains and forests of Jilin Province and Heilongjiang Province, where Siberian tigers and Amur leopards are mainly distributed, to monitor their activities, Feng explained.

In autumn of 2016, Ge Jianping, a professor from Beijing Normal University and also founder of the university's research center for Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, together with members of his research team, came to the area where the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park is currently located to look for more suitable technological support for their wild animal protection efforts.

After spending seven days searching for a solution, they eventually found that the place had wide optical fiber network coverage. The researchers thought they could use these facilities to promote informatization of their protection efforts.

Photo shows an Amur leopard in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. (People’s Daily Online/courtesy of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration)

The research team then worked together with media companies and more than 10 domestic high-tech companies, jointly developing a 700 MHz frequency band suitable for the forest environment. They also developed key components and equipment including real-time monitoring equipment, terminal communication modules and connectors, and a management platform, among other equipment. In February 2018, a natural resources monitoring system was put into operation in the area.

There are 95 base stations inside the national park, of which over 60 were built at the sites of former forestry fire monitoring towers. This practice has not only saved on costs, but also protected the vegetation.

More than 20,000 monitoring terminals, including infrared cameras, have been set up inside the national park, capturing and then transmitting videos and images of wild Siberian tigers and Amur leopards over 30,000 times.

At present, more than 6,800 forest rangers are engaged in the work of protecting wild animals inside the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. In addition to the rangers, more and more local villagers have started to join the protection drive. Han Changxue, a farmer from Hunchun city, Jilin Province, became a forest ranger in 2021. After receiving training, he can now skilfully remove traps and identify tracks of wild animals in the forest.

The monitoring system has greatly improved patrol and management efficiency for forest rangers.

"In recent years, we've participated in more than 580 maintenance tasks, repairing and replacing the relevant equipment to ensure that the monitoring system operates smoothly," said a person in charge of maintenance of the monitoring system.

Thanks to this technology, the number of wild Siberian tigers inside the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park has gone up to 50 from 27 in 2015, and the number of Amur leopards has exceeded 60 from 42 in 2015.