China establishes AI monitoring platform to protect wildlife

HARBIN - An artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring platform, aiming to protect wildlife, has been jointly established, local authorities said Tuesday.

The AI big data real-time monitoring platform, co-developed by the Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) and HIT Big Data Group, is expected to support research on ecological systems, animal populations and individual animals through advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning and neuro-linguistic processing.

Internet of Things, big data and intelligent machine vision will also enable the platform to establish individual recognition models with main recognition elements such as animals' posture, gait, color and fur pattern.

Li Fuquan, an official with HIT Big Data Group, said the platform will be preliminarily applied to track and monitor endangered Siberian tigers, leopards and their prey. Forest zones in northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces and border areas between China and Russia are Siberian tigers and leopards' main habitat.

The platform is expected to provide cross-border services for wildlife protection, according to Li.

A database for Siberian tigers and leopards will be established to help study the relationship between the changes of ecological environment and the development of the species.

"Data can help us better understand wildlife, and more technologies are expected to be introduced to study and protect wild animals," Li added.