While watching the six-month old cub eating bamboo leaves, veterinarian Yang Benqing said that the animal is this year's first wild giant panda saved and sent to the nearby natural reserve.

According to Yang, the deserted cub was discovered on May 1 in a bamboo forest, with an elevation of over 2,500 meters, in Maoxing County, by a local farmer. The cub was then taken to the Fengtongzhai Giant Panda Natural Reserve the following day.

The reserve assigned its most experienced experts and used its best equipment to render emergency treatment, the expert said. The cub was suffering from acute enteritis and malnutrition when it arrived at the reserve.

When arriving at the reserve, the cub weighed only 7.3 kilograms, it now weighs at least seven kilograms heavier after four-months medical treatment and care.

Yang said the giant panda would have died in the wild if she had not been rescued by the farmer.

Giant pandas are one of the world's most endangered species, and only about 1,000 are known to exist in the wild, 80 percent of them in Sichuan Province.

(Xinhua)