BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese conservationists in north China's Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces have found two habitats of the North China leopard, a subspecies of the Amur leopard that is peculiar to China.

Over the past year, cameras have captured at least 28 North China leopards in a monitored mountainous region in Shaanxi, by far the most densely populated region for the endemic leopard, said Feng Limin, an associate professor with Beijing Normal University.

The other habitat was found in the Taihangshan Mountains in Shanxi.

From 2013, Feng's team started a research program monitoring the leopard species, deploying a large number of motion detectors and infrared cameras over a large area.

“The discovery of the habitats shows the number and variety of wild animals have improved in China after years of conservation,” Feng said.

The North China Leopard is one of the four leopard subspecies in China and the only one to live exclusively in the country. It is under top national-level protection in the country.