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August 12, 2020

Inspur Develops Technology to Protect 300 Wild Asian Elephants and Drive Ecological Harmony

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 12, 2020 — Today marks the 9th annual World Elephant Day. Inspur and China Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve have joined hands to develop a world-leading system for the conservation of Asian elephants. Powered by AI, big data, and cloud computing, this system enables around-the-clock monitoring of the animals, effectively mitigating human-elephant conflict. It also sets an example of how technology can be leveraged to protect endangered species, promote harmony between humans and nature, and drive sustainable development.

The Asian elephant, the largest mammal in Asia, is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List for its small population size. Found only in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the southern border of Yunnan (a province in southwest of China), Asian elephants play a crucial role in protecting wildlife resources in their habitats and maintaining local biological diversity and ecological integrity in tropical forest ecosystems.

Thanks to more than 30 years of conservation efforts, the population of Asian elephants in Yunnan has risen from 193 in 1983 to nearly 300 in 2020. Yet the shrinking habitats are too small accommodate the increase, and the animals roam beyond protected areas into human communities, consuming foods and raiding crops and farm facilities. Human-elephant conflict has posed new challenges to the protection of Asian elephants. Meanwhile, elephants that often stray into human settlements have changed their behavioral patterns as well. More data is needed for scientists to learn about their new habits and behaviors to inform long-term protection strategies.

Traditional observation methods relying on manpower are no longer adequate to meet sustainable development demands. It has become a priority to utilize the power of technology to preserve the elephants, minimize their confrontations with humans and study their evolution in real-time without causing disruptions.

To alleviate human-elephant conflict and enable more informed scientific research, Inspur has developed a system to protect wild Asian elephants. By combining advanced technology such as cloud computing, IoT, big data, and AI, the system enables smart identification in milliseconds with an accuracy of over 96%. It provides insights into the habits and migratory routes of elephants, offering scientific basis for developing the Asian Elephant National Park, transforming elephant habitats, optimizing food sources, improving crop distribution, and other protective measures. Based on the gathered data, it can provide a useful reference for habitat conservation in the future.

This successful use case will be replicated in the future protection of rare and endangered species as Inspur continues to contribute to a sustainable planet through technology. “We strive to inspire a better world through intelligent computing. Human, animals, and nature share the same breath. Technology will unveil a new age of harmonious coexistence,” said Peter Peng, CEO of Inspur Information.

About Inspur

Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., LTD is a leading provider of data center infrastructure, cloud computing, and AI solutions, ranking among the world’s top 3 server manufacturers. Through engineering and innovation, Inspur delivers cutting-edge computing hardware design and extensive product offerings to address important technology arenas like open computing, cloud data center, AI and deep learning. Performance-optimized and purpose-built, our world-class solutions empower customers to tackle specific workloads and real-world challenges. To learn more, please go to www.inspursystems.com.


Source: Inspur 

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