For hundreds of thousands of years, the wild camel has roamed the arid plains of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and China. Few mammals can survive in this harsh environment, where temperatures range from over 40° C in summer to –30° C in winter, yet this unique species has endured.

However, experts believe that there are now only approximately 1,000 wild camels left. They are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but salvation may be at hand from an unlikely source: space technology.

Liu Shaochuang, one of the five Laureates of the 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise, is a remote sensing specialist working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he travelled to the Gobi Desert, whose dry, rocky landscape was ideal for testing the Chang’e 3 lunar rover. Whilst there, he became one of the lucky few who have spotted this elusive animal, and local people and conservationists explained the plight of the wild camel, whose numbers were dwindling due to climate change, habitat loss, predation, hunting, disease, domestication and crossbreeding by humans.

Scientists were continually frustrated in their endeavours to monitor the camels, as the scarce population is scattered across 200,000 square kilometres of wild, inhospitable terrain. Unable to track the camels, their research was limited to studying hoof prints and droppings.

Liu realised that he was in a unique position to help with remote sensing – the use of satellites to observe the Earth’s surface.

The first step is to fit camels with tracking collars that link to satellites, which Liu first did on 6 May 2012. “It took us two or three days wandering around in the desert,” he says, “When we finally attached a tracker to a wild camel it was a thrilling moment.”

Since that first victory, Liu and his team have managed to fit over ten wild camels with tracking collars, which transmit their positions daily. Once they have identified the camels’ key habitats, Liu’s team study the environment around the herds with the remote sensing technology he previously used to help map the headwaters of some of the world’s great rivers. It is this innovative approach to conservation that earned Liu his Rolex Award for Enterprise. He can study extensive data regarding herd movements, the ecological impact of climate change, and other potential threats, all from his desk in Beijing.

Nevertheless, he regularly returns to the Gobi Desert to continue his work. It is a hostile environment, but the conditions are not daunting for a man who, in April 2002, became the first person from China to reach the North Pole alone, on foot: “Of course you encounter problems in a harsh environment like the Gobi Desert, but there are no insurmountable difficulties.”

The resulting data set has afforded Liu a greater understanding of the threats faced by the camels. For example, he has been able to quantify their considerable habitat loss due climate change and human activity. This leaves the camels even more vulnerable to predation from wolves, while the existence of fewer drinking spots increases the possibility of an epidemic sweeping through the camel population as they congregate more frequently.

Critically, understanding these threats is the first step in mitigating them. According to Liu, “Finding out where wild camels go, where they drink and what kinds of threats they face will help us draw up plans to better protect their water sources and define their protection zone.” Liu’s data will be instrumental in advocating for the creation of two huge conservation zones for the wild camel: the China Wild Camel National Park and the China-Mongolia Cross-border Wild Camel Nature Reserve.

Liu has plans to step up his research, and with the support of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative he will be able to fit more tracking devices to camels, collect further biological samples, and invest in equipment for health monitoring. This support will also allow him to secure a year’s worth of airtime for 40 satellite trackers.

For Liu, his Rolex Award for Enterprise will also be key in garnering support for his cause: “I hope this Award will inspire more people to invest in the protection of wild camels. It is not only an affirmation of the value of our past work and the project itself but, more importantly, it can attract people’s attention to this issue.”

Liu’s work with the wild camel is just the start, and he is hopeful that the strategies his team have developed can be used to protect other endangered animals: “Our dream is to transfer our model to the protection of other species, such as snow leopards and Siberian tigers. If we don’t protect them, they face the same risks as wild camels.”

ABOUT THE PERPETUAL PLANET INITIATIVE

For nearly a century, Rolex has supported pioneering explorers pushing back the boundaries of human endeavour. The company has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet, committing for the long term to support individuals and organizations using science to understand and devise solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

This engagement was reinforced with the launch of the Perpetual Planet Initiative in 2019, which includes the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, as well as long-standing partnerships such as Mission Blue and the National Geographic Society, or younger organizations such as Coral Gardeners, among a pool of over 30 partners.

As one of the pillars of the Perpetual Planet Initiative, the Rolex Awards continue to expand their portfolio, which includes projects from Grégoire Courtine’s groundbreaking technologies to treat spinal cord injury, to Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim’s work with indigenous people to map natural resources and prevent climate conflicts in the Sahel.

Rolex also supports organizations and initiatives fostering the next generations of explorers, scientists and conservationists through scholarships and grants, such as Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and The Rolex Explorers Club Grants.