One of the three previously-reported missing pandas from Wolong breeding center in southwestern Sichuan Province has returned safely and two others remain missing.

Staff workers of the research center transfer pandas to a safe place during the earthquake.

Staff members with the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, where more than 60 pandas were raised, are searching for the two missing pandas, Xiong Beirong, an official with the provincial forestry bureau told Xinhua.

Xiong said the two missing were "very likely to be alive" though aftershocks could almost be felt every few hours in the mountainous area, which is about 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the 8-magnitude quake.

"Both pandas were adults and they are more capable to escape from dangers than younger ones," she said. "We hope the two missing pandas are as lucky as their peers."

Two pandas were injured in their collapsed dormitories in the quake. Six others disappeared from the Wolong center after the quake, but four of them have come back safely over the past few days.

In a notice posted on the ministry's website, Jia Zhibang, Minister of Forestry, asked local branches to put more punch into the monitoring of wild giant pandas and extend timely rescue to those injured and ailing.

The conditions of wild pandas had remained unknown after the 8.0-magnitude struck Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, where more than 1,590 giant pandas lived in the wild.