Back in the year 2000, Han Wentao returned to his home in Bawang Ridge in Hainan’s tropical rainforest. Hainan Gibbon, a rare, endangered species that Han has been monitoring and protecting for more than 20 years.

Heading up into the mountains every day armed with a camera and GPS tracker to monitor the gibbons can be tiring work. To make life easier for the ground monitoring crew and boost conservation and research efforts, the national park administration turned to technology. To date, 320 IR capture and 19 real-time monitoring cameras have been installed in the trees at Bawang Ridge, as well as optical fiber vibration detection systems and motion sensors at key places on the ground.

Thanks to this technology, Han Wentao and monitoring staff like him have collected vast amounts of audiovisual material on the Hainan Gibbon, allowing more people to get a glimpse at the life of the world’s rarest primate. According to Han, conservation and development must go hand in hand to allow even more people to appreciate the beauty and mystery of the Hainan tropical rainforest.