Big data, satellites aid in conservation of nature

Conservationists are turning to high-tech tools and big data for wildlife monitoring and management in China.

"The past 10 years have seen wildlife data accumulate rapidly," Li Binbin, assistant professor of environmental science at Duke Kunshan University, said at the Workshop of Intelligent Technology and Big Data in Nature Conservation, which was held earlier this week in Shanghai.

For example, in the field monitoring and protection of giant pandas, Amur tigers, cheetahs and black rhinos, "classification of these species at the individual, sex, age-class and species levels can be done through footprint identification," said Li.