China's "computing power" guards 300 Asian elephants: all-weather monitoring and observation to alleviate human-elephant conflicts
China News Agency, Xishuangbanna, August 12 (Reporter Xia Bin) Breaking into farmland for food also destroys crops, damages farmland facilities and residents’ property, and, more unfortunately, causes casualties... How to solve the people who frequently cause trouble The elephant conflict has become a "must-answer question" in China's work on protecting wild Asian elephants.
August 12 is the ninth "World Elephant Day". A reporter from China News Agency came to Xishuangbanna to visit the world's leading Asian elephant ecological protection system jointly created by Inspur and the National Nature Reserve Management Bureau of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. This system realizes all-weather monitoring and observation of Asian elephants through a series of technological means such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, etc., effectively alleviating human-elephant conflicts, and saving endangered species, exploring the harmonious coexistence and sustainability of man and nature. The development of this long-term proposition injects scientific and technological strength.
Asian elephants are one of the endangered species identified by the World Conservation Union. In the early 1980s, there were only about 170 Asian elephants in China. With the establishment of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan and effective protection measures, the number of Asian elephants in China has grown to about 300, of which about 95% of the Asian elephant population lives in the reserve.
As the population of Asian elephants grows, the work of the reserve also faces new challenges. On the one hand, more and more Asian elephants have left their habitats in search of food, and incidents of wild elephants walking into villages and cities are frequent, and human-elephant conflicts intensify. On the other hand, the behavior patterns, living habits and ecological environment of Asian elephant populations living in the depths of the rainforest are also changing. Scientists need more data to grasp the habits and laws of Asian elephants and provide scientific basis for the long-term protection of Asian elephants.
Guo Xianming, deputy director of the Science Research Institute of Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan, told a reporter from China News Agency that the habitat of the Asian elephant in Xishuangbanna is a tropical rain forest with complex landforms and blocked roads, which is not conducive to observation and tracking. The traditional monitoring and early warning work is mainly Relying on artificial observation of elephant feces and footprints, with the assistance of drones, walking tracking of elephant trajectories, predicting routes, and issuing early warnings to surrounding residents.
“However, the work model that relies solely on human early warning has not only hidden safety hazards, but also cannot guarantee all-weather real-time monitoring. It is prone to misjudgments and missed judgments. Moreover, there will be delays in the transmission of manual early-warning information. Extensive collection and management methods and other issues." Guo Xianming said.
Now, China's "computing power" is guarding 300 Asian elephants. The Asian elephant ecological protection system jointly created by Inspur and the Reserve Management Bureau collects the behavior data and trajectory of Asian elephants in the rainforest in real time, and uses artificial intelligence technology to achieve millisecond-level precision identification at the edge, with an accuracy of 96%. In low-light nights, Asian elephants can also be identified by a tail or a back. At present, the recognition accuracy is still improving, and it is at the international leading level.
Since the system was officially put into use in May of this year, no casualties due to human-elephant conflicts have occurred in all the early warning areas covered.
Shen Rong, vice president of Inspur Information and general manager of Inspur information server product line, said that Inspur has always adhered to the "smart computing" strategy and has penetrated computing into all aspects that support harmony between man and land. Inspur is also currently trying to apply the Asian elephant protection system to the monitoring and protection of rare species in other regions, such as the Yunnan golden monkey, black-necked crane, and muntjac. It hopes to provide support for biodiversity research in more regions in the future . (Finish)