They’re elusive as much as they are lovable.

Now, wild pandas are being spotted more in northwest China’s Gansu Province. There are now more than 100 wild pandas at a national nature reserve there.

It was set up in 1978 and it now has the largest population of wild pandas of any major reserve in China.

National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale

It’s one thing to breed pandas in captivity. It’s another to train them so they can be released into the wild. That’s exactly what China is beginning to do more and more.

The publication, National Geographic Magazine, dedicates a feature in their August issue about this program.

CCTV’s Asieh Namdar, spoke to Ami Vitale, the photographer that captured powerful images of China’s elusive bear.