The number of giant pandas in the wild in China has jumped more than 40 percent to 1,590, according to a new survey.

    There are another 161 raised in captivity.

    But the animal remains endangered because its scattered habitat makes breeding difficult, the government said yesterday.

    Officials with the State Forestry Administration attributed the rise to conservation efforts implemented in the early 1990s.

    "The number of pandas living in the wild has climbed to 1590, from 1,110 reported in 1988," said Zhao Xuemin, deputy director of the administration.

    "Besides, the figure is exclusive of baby pandas under 18 months old."

    But the World Wildlife Fund, which paid for half the US$1 million survey, cautioned that the spike may result from more reliable surveying methods rather than a real increase in the panda population.

    "What it's telling us is that there are hundreds more pandas in the wild than we previously knew," said Karen Baragona, head of the World Wildlife Fund's panda conservation program in Washington.

    "But we really don't believe the population could have increased so rapidly given the habitat loss from logging."

    Zhuo rongsheng, head of the forestry administration's wildlife protection office, said China is building corridors to connect the isolated areas where pandas live and is doing research on breeding, feeding and disease prevention.

    He said the government also is experimenting with the release of pandas bred in captivity.

    Zhuo wouldn't say how many had to be found before China would deem them out of danger of extinction.

    "We can say with full confidence that we have achieved great success in the conservation of the giant panda," Zhuo said.

    "We cannot say that the giant panda is no longer endangered."

    The panda study, China's third since the 1970s, covered mostly the western provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

    It tracked pandas through their droppings and mapped their distribution and population density.

    Baragona said two-thirds of wild pandas were found in nature reserves, which have almost quadrupled to about 50 in the past decade.

    She said the estimate of the number of existing wild pandas has grown because more areas considered conducive to panda living were examined and new pandas were found and more advanced surveillance technology was used compared with the 1980s.

    "We're definitely not out of the woods," she said.

    As the most endangered species in the world, pandas prefer living alone in high mountains and deep valleys, posing a great difficulty for the study of the rare species.

    Of the 161 pandas raised in captivity, about 70 percent were artificially bred, Zhuo said.

    He said China had seen rises in its giant panda population and betterment of their living conditions since the country launched a project in the early 1990s to preserve the species and their habitats.

    China has founded 27 giant panda reserves and moved to protect 32 counties that are proven habitats of the rare species. At least 95 percent of giant pandas in the wild are now under protection.