Altogether 180 giant pandas, an endangered species, were born through artificial breeding and survived in the past decade in southwest China's Sichuan Province, government statistics show.

That brings the number of pandas raised in captivity to 241 in the province, accounting for 83 percent of the country's total, according to the Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department.

Meanwhile, 1,206 pandas are living in the wild in Sichuan, or 76 percent of the country's total.

Giant pandas, known for being sexually inactive, are among the world's most endangered animals due to shrinking habitat.

There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild in the country, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu.