The massive forests that cover the Qinling Mountains in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have witnessed a growth in the populations of several rare animals, following decades-long efforts to protect local ecological systems using advanced technologies alongside traditional methods.
The Qinling range spans more than 50,000 square kilometers across Shaanxi and some neighboring provinces, and is known as China's wildlife "gene bank" for the huge variety of plants and wild animals that live there.
The mountainous region has seen its forest coverage rate increase following decades of environmental conservation efforts targeting major polluters like illegal construction sites, mines and mine dumps.
Protected areas have been established across the Qinling Mountains, with Shaanxi alone setting up 115 sanctuaries across 26,000 square kilometers, or nearly half the mountains' land area, for ecological conservation.
In mid-2024 the forest coverage rate in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi stood at over 82 percent with a target being set to add three percent more by the year end.
The lush forests provide ideal habitats for different endangered animals including Giant pandas, with the wild population reaching 345 following decades of reforestation, bamboo planting and population monitoring.
The Shaanxi section of the Qinling Mountains is also home to about 6,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys.
Experts said that the monkey's population growth can be partly attributed to an AI facial recognition technology developed by China's Northwest University.
As the golden snub-nosed monkeys live high up in the tree tops, traditional infrared cameras are incapable of identifying them or collecting data to analyze.
By using AI facial recognition technology data can be collected on facial and behavioral characteristics which can identify golden snub-nosed monkeys and assess population sizes with specialized models and highly complex algorithms. "Our monkey facial recognition technology is capable of precisely identifying a monkey by facial characteristics. Currently, we are capable of identifying them, recognizing their behaviors and even conducting quantitative analysis of their behaviors," said Guo Songtao, a professor at the school of life sciences of Northwest University.
The Qinling Mountains are now home to over 10,000 crested ibises, a bird species that was on the brink of extinction with only seven of them surviving in the wild in Yangxian County in Shaanxi 40 years ago.
Local authorities have banned hunting and the use of certain fertilizers and pesticides, and set up two captive breeding bases, to help the crested ibises recover from near extinction here.
"Restoring the population size of such an endangered species to over 10,000 is a landmark and unique example of species restoration," said Liu Yinzeng, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Animal populations in northwest China forests grow as decades of conservation efforts pay off
