Systematic wildlife surveys have been carried out for over 100 years. At present, numerous survey methods have been developed and corresponding survey protocols have been established. In recent decades, Chinese researchers have conducted numerous surveys on wildlife. However, due to the lack of detailed field survey protocols, surveys are often carried out casually, resulting in unreliable and non-standardized data with many important pieces of information missing. Key issues include incomplete information on the sampling line with only the latitude and longitude of the starting and ending points provided, rather than detailed information with points recorded at every second; lack of reliability indicators for animal sighting information, such as the distance from the observer; unreasonable survey times; poor spatial sampling balance in survey regions; and insufficient standardization in recording, such as uncertainty in the recording duration at each observation point. In response, we have proposed some simple and feasible survey guidelines based on internationally accepted standards to improve the quality of field survey data. In addition, we advocate for paperless field recording, using existing mobile APPs and model tools to improve the efficiency of field recording and subsequent data processing. We recommend to develop a national wildlife survey system with thousands of predefined survey routes, so as to minimize the sampling uncertainty and better quantify the temporal dynamics of wildlife populations, and ultimately support wildlife management.