Wildlife Protection Features with BeiDou
As a species native to China, Tibetan antelope plays an important role in maintaining the ecological environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Tibetan antelope is an endangered species, whose population had dropped from originally several millions down to less than fifty thousand in the last century. At present, its number has restored to over 200,000.
However, considering that the Tibetan antelope inhabits on desert plateaus, ice fields and the surrounding areas of lakes and swamps at an altitude around five thousand meters, which are all depopulated zones with extreme living conditions, its habitats add difficulties to its protection.
Better protection can only be brought about with better understanding. With the help of BeiDou GPS collar, which contains BeiDou chip, the data collecting and statistics of the scientific expedition of Tibetan antelope have been largely improved in 2013.
The BeiDou GPS collar has, for the first time, been applied to the study of Tibetan antelope
The BeiDou GPS collar applied to the study of Tibetan antelope for the first time
Foreign satellite navigation system had been used during the scientific expedition of Qinghai Tibetan antelope in 2007. Back then, the information was sent back once every four days. But this time, the scientific expedition was carried out in Qiangtang Natural Reserve, which locates at an average elevation of 5000 meters above sea level, covering an area of 300,000 square kilometers, which equals to twice the area of province Henan. These factors, plus the population dynamics and the complexity of Tibetan antelope’s migration route, had put a great challenge in front of the scientific expedition. Under such condition, the once-every-four-days information transmission frequency had become incapable of meeting the needs of this research.
In this situation, The BeiDouGPS collar has, for the first time, been applied to the study of Tibetan antelope. The frequency of information transmission is between 4 to 10 times a day, and that is, 10 times during the migration and 4 times during the rest of the time. The information contains the time and location of Tibetan antelopes, with the positioning accuracy increased from a range of a few kilometers to meters. Scientific experts of China’s State Forestry Bureau pointed out that BeiDou GPS collar can help them to get more and more precise data, which enables them to keep abreast of the accurate migration routes of Tibetan antelope.
The collars applied in this research are developed and provided by the NO.772 research institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. -“The BeiDou GPS collar weights less than 500g, so as not to affect the normal life of Tibetan antelopes. Meanwhile, the collar is high-temperature resistant, cold resistant and waterproof, whose battery life lasts 18 to 24 months.” introduced Bi Bo, researcher of the institute.
Researchers fitted the BeiDou GPS collar to 15 Tibetan antelopes. They real-time tracked and studied the time and range of activity of these 15 Tibetan antelopes and their groups. For now, the migration of Tibetan antelope has already finished, and the scientific research will also take a break accordingly, until the same time next year, when the Tibetan antelopes in Qiangtang Natural Reserve migrate again to give birth to lambs. Wu Xiaoming, researcher of the Northwest Institute of Endangered Animals of State Forestry Bureau said, in order to study and analyze the activity of Tibetan antelope and solve the mystery of Tibetan antelope’s migration, scientific researchers will collect more useful and valid data and information within the next year and a half.
BeiDou’s Three main Facilitation for Wildlife Protection
Animal protection specialists have recognized and highly appreciated the role that BeiDou chip played in its first application in Tibetan antelope research.
Wu Xiaoming, researcher of the Northwest Institute of Endangered Animals of State Forestry Bureau thinks that the introduction of BeiDou technology into wildlife protection can play an important role, for it has made regions with extreme conditions, where researcher aren’t able to set foot in, accessible for scientific research.
-“The introduction of BeiDou into Tibetan antelope protection is a very important attempt.” says Kang Aili, director of Wildlife Conservation Society’s program in China. -“By using BeiDou technology, the precise migration route of Tibetan antelope can be described quantitatively. Due to its altitude, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has formed a unique, closed ecological system. The species in this system have their uniqueness, and the study of Tibetan antelope has fill the bank in world wildlife research.” Kang added.
It is said that GPS technology has been applied to wildlife protection in Africa and North America.
BeiDou GPS collar adopts the technology of BeiDou Navigation and Positioning Satellite System, a satellite navigation and positioning system self-developed by China. The collar has several outstanding advantages comparing to foreign satellite navigation and positioning systems, as Bi Bo told China Electronics News -“ It’s first advantage is its accuracy, the location accuracy of BeiDou is within a range of several meters, whereas the accuracy of others’ are several kilometers. Secondly, data can only be downloaded regularly from the internet when using foreign satellite navigation and positioning systems, while using BeiDou, real-time location information can be acquired, thanks to the fast data transmission speed. Thirdly, BeiDou is China’s self-developed satellite navigation and positioning system, which, to some extent eliminates doubts in the aspect of security.
Up to the 27th of December last year, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has launched 16 satellites, covering the Asian-Pacific region. By the year 2020, the total number of launched satellites will reach 35, and BeiDou will achieve global coverage. It’s foreseeable that the BeiDou will make great contribution to wildlife protection in the future.