Giant pandas no longer endangered – in pictures

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After two decades of conservation efforts, giant pandas are now officially out of the "endangered" zone.

The animal's numbers have increased by 17 per cent from 2004 to 2014, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. They have therefore been downgraded to the "vulnerable" species list.

The South China Morning Post credits "decades of conservation work" in China for the rebound, including "an intense effort to replant bamboo forests, which provide food and shelter for the bears".

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However, it's not such good news for the eastern gorilla, the world's largest living primate, whose population has declined by more than 70 per cent over the past 20 years.

"The eastern gorilla population, made up of two subspecies, is estimated to be fewer than 5,000, bumping it from endangered to critically endangered," reports CNN.

The species lives in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, northwest Rwanda and southwest Uganda. Illegal hunting, fuelled by the spread of firearms amid the region's civil wars, has led to the population decline, says the IUCN.