The Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park is located in the southern part of Laoye Mountains, a branch of Changbai Mountain, which is the area with the largest population and most frequent activities of Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in mainland China, and is also the only settlement and breeding area at present, and is also an important wildlife distribution area and one of the areas with the richest biodiversity in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere.
In 2006, Feng Limin, a doctoral student at Beijing Normal University, came to the northeast of Linhai Snow Field to hunt for Siberian tigers. Today, he is an associate professor in the tiger and leopard research team at Beijing Normal University and deputy director of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
Feng Limin in the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park (Photo by Guangming Network reporter Li Hang)
According to Feng Limin, in the history of Northeast China, wild Siberian tigers and Amur leopards once reached the grand occasion of "all mountains". However, due to increased human activity, forest loss and degradation, wild Siberian tiger and leopard populations and habitats are shrinking rapidly. In a 1998-1999 trilateral survey by Chinese, Russian, and American experts, there were no breeding or sustainable populations in China. Subsequently, with the implementation of natural forest protection projects, the establishment of nature reserves, and especially the implementation of a complete ban on hunting in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, the ecological environment of the habitat of Siberian tigers and leopards has gradually improved, and wild populations have been restored.
Feng Limin observes wild animal feces (photo by Guangming Network reporter Li Hang)
Over the past 17 years, Feng Limin has walked into the mountains and forests thousands of times, following the footsteps of tigers and leopards, and hiking up to 40 kilometers a day. At the same time, with the strong support of the State Forestry Administration, the Jilin Provincial Forestry Department, and the Heilongjiang Forest Industry Bureau, the tiger and leopard research team of Beijing Normal University carried out positioning monitoring for 10 years, and compiled the research results into the "Proposal on the Implementation of the "Major Ecological Project for the Restoration and Protection of China's Wild Siberian Tigers and Amur Leopards", which was submitted to the central government through the Central Committee of the Democratic League, and recommended that the protection of Siberian tigers and leopards be included in the national strategy, which also laid the groundwork for the later establishment of the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park.
On October 12, 2021, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park was included in the first batch of national parks, but Feng Limin and his team did not stop chasing the tigers. In order to better protect and restore the ecosystems of tigers and leopards and their habitats, Feng Limin and his research team at Beijing Normal University have presided over the development of the world's largest real-time wildlife monitoring system.
Feng Limin introduced the monitoring system (photo by Guangming Network reporter Li Hang)
Through modern communication, artificial intelligence, big data analysis and other technical means, this system forms an integrated real-time monitoring system of space, ground and air, and realizes the informatization of national parks. More than 20,000 real-time monitoring devices have been installed deep in the forest, giving the national park a "clairvoyant" and "ear to the wind", and "wings" for wildlife protection and national park management.
It's not just national parks that use modern technology for ecological protection, but some companies are also using advanced technology to help protect the environment. As the first enterprise in China to build a distributed photovoltaic energy system, JD Logistics' No. 1 warehouse in Asia has taken into account intelligence and environmental protection from the solar power supply system on the roof to the rainwater collection system, from the "black light operation" of intelligent equipment to the algorithm recommendation of intelligent consumables, so that modern technology and ecological environmental protection can be combined.
"Going deep into the national park in person, in a very short period of time, you can see that the national park is full of life and the wildlife population is thriving. For Feng Limin, protecting and tracking Siberian tigers has been a part of his life, and it is precisely because there are more and more guardians like him that the wild Siberian tigers are returning to the mountains and forests. (Jin Linghan, Yue Pei, Li Hang)
Source: Guangming.com