Current application and research demand of wildlife resource monitoring technology in natural protected areas, China

Biodiversity monitoring, considered a primary method for understanding resource dynamics, recognizing the survival status of conservation objects, and assessing conservation outcomes, plays a vital role in constructing and managing national parks and reserves. The technological state in this area is an indicator of management capability and scientific proficiency. Wildlife resource monitoring technology lags behind in comparison to other industries and other domains within forestry. The limitations of the current technologies to some extent hinder the progress of monitoring tasks in national parks and reserves. An overview of the development of primary wildlife monitoring technologies has been provided, with existing technical deficiencies summarized and evaluated. Subsequently, strategies for developing monitoring technologies for national parks and reserves using information technology and artificial intelligence have been presented. It is advised to systematically integrate existing monitoring technologies, and consider free positioning, spatial measuring, automatic recording, and transmission as main performance indicators. Based on this, considering the issues and usage deficiencies of existing intelligent monitoring technologies, crucial considerations for wildlife resource monitoring in a natural reserve system-primarily composed of national parks-have been proposed. The aim is to provide a reference for the research and development of animal resource monitoring technologies in national parks and protected areas, and promote orderly conduct and high-quality development of monitoring work.