China, Russia explore joint protection of tigers, leopards

Experts and academics from China and Russia proposed that the two countries carry out scientific and technological cooperation to strengthen their protection of wild tigers and leopards, during an online meeting broadcast on Nov 23 from Hunchun city – located in Northeast China's Jilin province.

Siberian tigers and leopards are mainly distributed in the Far East of Russia and Northeast China. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to habitat destruction and other factors, the numbers of these two species declined sharply, but in recent years a series of effective conservation efforts by China and Russia has resulted in the restoration of their populations.

New technology is the key, according to Feng Limin, deputy director of the Siberian Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center at the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

He told the meeting that the China-developed Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park Integrated Real-time Monitoring System was a winner. That's because it can achieve real-time monitoring of wild animals, human activities and habitats, using modern communications, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other technologies.

Since it went into use in 2018, the real-time monitoring system has generated more than 15 million videos about biodiversity, effectively promoting the precise and intelligent management of national parks. At present, the system is being promoted in other national parks in China.

Yang Haitao, an associate researcher at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University, said there were major prospects for the application of remote sensing, lidar and other technologies in the protection of wild Siberian tigers and leopards.

He urged both sides to cooperate deeply with research teams in China and Russia to carry out precise research on the behavior of the animals.