Chinese researchers have photographed wild giant pandas, an endangered animal home to China, at a nature reserve in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, local forestry sources said Monday.

Chinese researchers photographed wild giant pandas in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 13, 2006. [Xinhua]

More than 20 pictures of wild giant pandas were obtained from eight automatic infrared cameras set at a buffer area of the Longxi-Hongkou National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, according to researchers with the reserve.

The shots were taken on May 13 at the buffer area with an altitude of 2,600 meters, where researchers had put pig bones and apples in front of the cameras to attract wild animals.

"It is the first time for the province to get the pictures of wild giant pandas by using such cameras, as the wild animal is not quite easily seen by people," a researcher said.

The wild giant pandas sightings show that they gnawed the bones and apples put by researchers and stayed about two hours at the area, according to the researchers.

Stems of arrow bamboos eaten by the wild giant pandas, and their excrements were also discovered, said the scientists. The samples of the excrements have been sent to the animal research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for further studies, they said.

One of the world's most endangered species, wild giant pandas are estimated at 1,590, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, according to China's State Forestry Administration.

On April 28, China sent four-year-old Xiang Xiang back into the wild in Wolong in Sichuan, which became the first giant panda raised in captivity that has been released to its natural habitat in China.