Giant pandas might not be in as much danger of extinction as once feared, according to a new British-Chinese study finding there might be twice as many pandas living in the wild as previously thought, scientists said.

"This finding indicates that the species may have a significantly better chance of long-term viability than recently anticipated, and that this beautiful animal might have a brighter future," the scientists said in a statement issued this week.

Until now, scientists thought there are about 1,590 giant pandas living in reserves in the mountains of China. Pandas, one of the world's most endangered and elusive animals, are dependent on bamboo found in that area.

But scientists from Britain's Cardiff University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences now think there might be as many as 3,000 in the mountains, after a survey using a new method to profile DNA from panda faeces revealed there is more than twice the estimated number of pandas in one reserve.

"This was surprising and exciting. In our opinion, the same parameters can be applied across the whole mountain range," Mike Bruford, professor of biodiversity at Cardiff University's School of Biosciences, said.

Bruford said the scientists, whose findings were published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology, stumbled across this discrepancy in the population while studying the movement of male and female pandas and their territorial instincts in order to understand their behavior.

The study found about 66 pandas are living in the Wanglang Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province not 27, as estimated in the latest national survey conducted in 2002.

Bruford said there is no way that panda births or migration could account for so large a discrepancy, and based on this finding, there might be 2,500 to 3,000 pandas in the wild.

Understanding population trends for giant pandas has been a major task for conservation authorities in China for about 30 years, with three national surveys conducted. However, the terrain is difficult to survey.

The first two surveys showed declines in numbers, but the most recent survey showed signs of a recovery assisted by the Chinese Government's creation of a network of natural reserves and the enforcement of anti-poaching and anti-logging laws.

Bruford said the next step is to replicate the British/Chinese survey using the same DNA method in other reserves.

The challenge then is to think beyond keeping pandas in reserves and find ways to end their isolation, because inbreeding and low genetic diversity remain a possible threat to the species' long-term survival, he added.

(China Daily June 22, 2006)