Decades of conservation work in China have paid off for the giant panda, whose status was upgraded Sunday from "endangered" to "vulnerable" due to a population rebound, officials said.
The improvement for the giant panda was announced as part of an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
The latest estimates show a population of 1,864 adult giant pandas. Although exact numbers are not available, adding cubs to the projection would mean about 2,060 pandas exist today, said the IUCN.
Through its "rent-a-panda" captive breeding programme, China has also loaned some bears to zoos abroad in exchange for cash, and reinvested that money in conservation efforts.
Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, said, the improvement was came from the hard work of controlling poaching and replanting bamboo forests.
