Wild giant pandas had already been spotted twice since the beginning of the year in a nature reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, authorities have said.

A wild panda was spotted on March 25 at Heizhugou Nature Reserve of Ebian Yi Autonomous County, Leshan City.

"The panda was lying on the grass. The white fur on its back was very easy to notice against the green woods, it was about one meter tall and two to three years old," said Like Xingfu, deputy secretary of the county's committee of the Communist Party of China.

"After about 30 minutes, it crawled slowly into the forest, while turning back to look at us from time to time," said Like who has worked in the county for six years but this was the first wild panda he'd seen.

The other wild panda sighting was on Feb. 5, when local villagers found a panda stuck on a cliff and called in rescuers. Before the actual rescue began, the panda had got down by itself and disappeared into the dense woods, said Li Zhihong, manager of the nature reserve.

"Locals are very keen to protect wild pandas. They keep their dogs at home so not to startle or disturb pandas," Li said.

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

China has established 62 nature reserves for giant pandas, spanning 3.2 million hectares where 70 percent of the 1,600 wild pandas live. Another 290 are in captive-breeding programs worldwide, mainly in China.

The forest coverage of Ebian County has reached 75.06 percent in 2010 after repeated efforts to protect natural forest and return farmland to forest.