AKIPRESS.COM -

The giant panda has long languished on the endangered species list, but an international monitoring group finally had some good news for it over the weekend, New York Times reports.

The pandas were removed from the endangered list, along with the Tibetan antelope. But the monitors issued a grim warning about the fate of the eastern gorilla, which has moved one step closer to extinction. It also said that the plains zebra has become “near threatened” because of hunting.

The new designations were announced on Sunday in a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading environmental group that tracks the status of plant and animal species.

Giant pandas are national symbol in China, their native habitat, and the I.U.C.N. said on Sunday that efforts by the Chinese government to reverse the slide of the population, using forest protection and reforestation, had been successful. The panda’s new designation is “vulnerable.”

The conservation union said researchers have cautiously increased estimates of the panda population in every study since 1985, but data from the most recent survey conducted between 2011 and 2014 removed any uncertainty about the rebound by the species. That study found an estimated 1,864 giant pandas in the wild, not counting cubs under the age of 18 months.