For many years, zoologists predicted the world's giant panda population faced imminent extinction due to fragility. 

The effort to save the iconic black-and-white bear has been led by China – its natural home. Breeding programs have been launched, and a tremendous amount of work has gone to improving its living environment. 

China now boasts a network of 67 panda reserves, including 250,000 hectares of wilderness in southwest Sichuan, as well as China's northern Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. With habitat destruction highest on the list of reasons why the panda was brought to the brink of extinction, ensuring that their food source remains plentiful is critical. 

For the panda numbers to continue to increase, the bamboo trees must continue to grow. Giant pandas have a massive appetite for bamboo leaves, stems and shoots, with an adult requiring between 12 and 38 kilograms, every day. 

But China’s battle to save the giant panda is being fought on many fronts. One of them is the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, located on the outskirts of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in the country’s southwest. Here, in addition to aged and infirm pandas deemed too weak to survive in the wild, the other residents are the product of an increasingly successful breeding program that relies largely on artificial insemination.

These and other conservation efforts have seen giant panda numbers almost double in the past 50 years, to the point where there are now thought to be roughly 1,900 living in the wild in China. After decades on the “endangered” list, just over a year ago the giant panda’s status was improved to “vulnerable.”

Commenting on this change, WWF Director General Marco Lambertini said at the time: “For over 50 years, the giant panda has been the globe’s most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF. Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world’s wildlife and their habitats.” 

Despite the increase in panda numbers, sightings in the wild are still quite rare. So, when a "Rediscovering China" team joined an expedition into the mountains of Sichuan, in the company of a group of rangers and researchers, they could not be sure they would see a giant panda in its natural habitat.  

"Rediscovering China" is a 30-minute features program offering in-depth reports on the major issues facing China today. It airs Sunday at 10:30 a.m. BJT (0230GMT), with a rebroadcast at 11:30 p.m. (1530GMT), as well as Monday at 8:30 a.m. (0030GMT) and Friday at 1:30 p.m. (0530GMT).