Police in China have arrested a man while attempting to sell the fur of a cub panda for about $30,000. The animal is considered in China as a national treasure.

China's official Xinhua news agency quoted an expert as saying, "The fur is 60 centimeters (24 inches) long and belonged to a panda cub."

The report said the man was caught as he was about to conclude the 250,000 yuan ($31,310) sale in the southeastern port city of Xiamen.

The man and another accomplice, who is wanted by police, bought the fur seven years ago. Another man living in the country's southwest where most pandas live sold the fur to the two men. At the time he was held, the man was in possession of the pelt of a clouded leopard.

The specie is one of the world's most exotic and endangered species of panda and is found only in China. About 1,500 wild pandas live in isolated nature reserves in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces of China.