Abstract:

The China mammal diversity observation network (China BON-Mammal) is a sub-network of the China Biodiversity Observation Network (China BON), organized by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and led by the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences. China BON-Mammal takes large and medium-sized terrestrial mammals as observation objects and sets a unified protocol and technical standards based on infrared camera trapping technology. From 2017 to 2019, 74 representative protected areas in 74 counties were selected as observation sample regions across 18 provinces of China to conduct infrared camera observations. By the end of 2019, more than 2 million photos were collected, 300,000 of which show wild animals. A total of 11 orders, 28 families, 132 species of mammals and 16 orders, 56 families, 408 species of birds were observed. Among these 45 species (33 mammal species and 12 bird species) were listed as Class-I National Key Protected Species. New records and rare species were also found. Here, we focus on the analysis of current achievements, existing problems, and next steps for the platform. In the future, China BON-Mammal will further improve data processing, analysis, and sharing to better promote biodiversity conservation.

Key words: camera trapping, mammal observation network, database platform, species list