From Cliff to Cloud: Scaling Up Conservation for China's White-headed Langurs

In the karst stone mountains of Chongzuo in Guangxi, a rare species of monkey lives on cliffs, feeds on leaves, and rocks a distinctive white mohawk nestled atop a buzz cut: meet the white-headed langur.

The fiery gold fur of the species' young gives way to a characteristic color palette at around a year old: black fur topped by a white head and shoulders, with the lower half of their tail also white. Endemic to China, the species is a typical diurnal primate with flawless climbing and jumping abilities, moving nimbly across trees and cliffs by day and retiring to caves or cliff ledges at night.

A white-headed langur female carrying her baby up the cliff face

Image credit: Ai Wenjia, Huawei / A white-headed langur munching on a leaf

Critically endangered

But with just over 1,400 individuals remaining, the white-headed langur is categorized as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. Rarer even than the giant panda, it is listed on the Red List of Vertebrates in China, positioning it as a class-one state protected species.

While the Chinese government has set up nature reserves and protected stations to monitor and protect the langur, manual observation is extremely difficult due to the monkey's speed and agility coupled with the steep mountainous terrain and dense foliage of its home.

To better monitor its status, behaviors, and habitat and help protected area managers develop targeted protection measures, the Chongzuo White-headed Langur National Nature Reserve set up dozens of cameras. However, given the time required to manually sit through hours and hours of recordings, the vast amounts of video data collected mostly sat idle on servers, wasting resources

Monitoring gets smart

In 2024, Huawei's TECH4ALL team launched a smart monitoring project in Chongzuo to collect data using the existing cameras and transmit this data through wired and 5G networks to cloud. An AI algorithm model developed by the China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Computing Center performs data labeling and identifies and marks the collected videos in real time, displaying the inference result on a monitoring platform. At the same time, intelligent data analysis is performed to deliver behavioral insights to park management based on which they can formulate protective measures.

Real-time picture of the intelligent monitoring platform for white-headed langurs

As of the end of May 2024, the system had detected white-headed langurs more than 15,200 times, with the maximum number of sightings at a single observation point reaching 38.

The protection of the white-headed langur is not just about protecting a species - it's also about protecting the entire ecosystem as the white-headed langur is an umbrella species. This project marks an important step for us to protect biodiversity in China, with the nature reserve and Huawei working together to find new, efficient ways to protect the langurs using technology.Nong Dengpan
Director of Guangxi Chongzuo White-headed Langur National Nature Reserve Management Center

Technology developed and deployed in a partnership approach can play a huge role in mitigating the impact of human activities on the natural environment and open up new possibilities for endangered species. In the case of the white-headed langur, this approach is offering a lifeline to a distinctive and beautiful species whose future would otherwise remain on a cliff's edge.