A global nature conservation group will assess the status of the giant panda after a Chinese survey found the population of the threatened species in the wild jumped by nearly 17 percent in the space of a decade.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a Swiss-based organization that classifies the rarity of animal species on a seven-point scale, announced on Tuesday that it is carrying out an reassessment of the status of the giant panda, the London-based Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
"The bear-specialist group is carrying out an assessment of the giant panda's status, based to a large extent on results of [China's] fourth national survey, as well as an assessment of habitat conditions," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN's red-list unit.
According to Hilton-Taylor, the group will assess various information including population sizes and trends from the past and projected into the future.
"The [assessment] group has also been investigating potential effects of climate change," he added.
China says its efforts to conserve the panda, its national animal, and expand its natural habitats in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces are having a real impact. According to the fourth national panda census by the State Forestry Administration, the number of wild giant pandas had increased by nearly 17 percent from 1,600 in 2003 to 1,864 in 2013.
Chinese officials are hopeful that the IUCN will downgrade the animal from being "endangered" to merely "vulnerable"--a lower level classification on a scale ranging from "extinct" to "least concern."
"Scientifically, the wild population is increasing and the natural habitat is expanding," a source with "direct knowledge" of the possible change told the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong daily.
However, Lu Zhi, a professor of conservation biology at Peking University, told the Post that, despite the reassuring figures, any decisions on the change of status of the giant pandas should be done cautiously as its habitats are fragmented and there is a loss of pristine habitats from road construction.
The IUCN also expressed caution over the reassessment of the giant panda as it is not yet complete and "no results are available." The organization did not say when an announcement would be made.
Preserving the giant panda population has become a matter of national pride in China, whose conservation efforts are being hampered by the panda's notoriously low reproduction rates. Several hundred animals are also held in captivity in zoos worldwide.