These 5 celebrities love red pandas!
Learn why these five celebrities love red pandas and how a love for this adorable species can be transformed into action!
It’s hard not to fall in love with red pandas. Not only are they adorable, with big round paws and a bushy red tail, but they’re also important, acting as a flagship species for one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Their conservation helps protect an entire ecosystem, making this fluffy bamboo-lover a hero of their ecological community.
It’s no surprise that a species so loveable is becoming more and more popular with mainstream media. TikToks and Instagram reels of red pandas flood the internet and movies like Disney’s Turning Red feature giant red pandas with big feelings. More and more people are publicizing their adoration of the first panda, including a few big-name celebrities who may surprise you.
These five celebrities love red pandas!
These celebrities might love red pandas just as much as we do! From Instagram accounts full of red panda pictures to ambassadorships dedicated to red panda conservation, these stars show their love for red pandas in diverse ways, highlighting the many ways you can support red pandas, too.
1. Dayahang Rai
Dayahang Rai. Photo Credit: RPN
Acclaimed Nepali actor, director, and playwright Dayahang Rai has gone above and beyond in his love for red pandas. He is a long-time conservation supporter and activist, saying in an interview with Mongabay, “I’ve always been inspired by nature in whatever I do, including acting. The gushing rivers, the placid lakes, and forests full of fragrances give me the energy to do whatever I do.”
This love for nature led him towards the red panda conservation work of Red Panda Network, which helps save red pandas by restoring the natural habitats Rai loves so much. In 2020, Rai took on the official role of Conservation Ambassador for RPN, helping us spread the word about this important and endangered species. He has contributed greatly to our anti-poaching education initiative to stop the misinformation fueling the illegal red panda trade.
“I am fortunate to be a part of this noble effort to conserve our national treasure. I will try my best to contribute to the conservation of red panda,” he expressed. We are only able to do the conservation work we do with supporters like Rai who help us spread awareness about the dangers red pandas face and what we can do to save them.
You can spread the word about red panda conservation, too, by sharing our red panda Outreach Materials with your community or even creating a fundraising page to raise funds for community-based red panda conservation!
2. Anna Kendrick
Anna Kendrick on Late Night with Seth Meyers 2015.
In an interview with Seth Meyers, Anna Kendrick gushed over the red pandas she saw at Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, NY on Christmas Day.
“They’re like every adorable animal in one animal,” she says. “I’m so obsessed with them now that I’ve seen one in person that I’ve started to reimagine my whole life, like, what do I have to do… to be rich enough to buy a red panda?”
We love Kendrick’s love for this endangered species, though we would likely point her to our No Panda Pets page for more information on why pandas aren’t a good option for a pet. Not only is it illegal to keep a red panda in your home, it’s dangerous for both you and the panda!
Design by Laura Siu. Learn more about our No Panda Poaching and No Panda Pets campaigns!
Instead, Kendrick and other red panda lovers can symbolically adopt a panda, supporting red panda conservation and getting a panda plush to cuddle safely at home.
3. Beabadoobee
Photo credit: @beabad00bee on X
British singer-songwriter Beabadoobee is obsessed with red pandas and we totally get it. In an interview with MTV she tells the story of how her obsession started – with adorable pictures and videos she found on Instagram.
“I just come across this video of this red panda,” she tells MTV News. “So my guitar tech walks in, like, ‘You look like you're crying,’ and I'm like, yeah, no, these are the cutest things I've seen in my life. He leaves for about two hours and he comes back and he's like, ‘You've been in the same spot for two hours, doing the exact same thing.’ I just, for two hours, was staring at red panda videos and pictures, crying. It was an amazing experience.”
In response to this newly unlocked love for red pandas, she created the Instagram account @redpandadoobee where she shared photos of pandas, her stuffed animal collection, and her desire to meet a panda. Her last post was around two years ago, where she shared a video of her finally seeing a red panda in person.
If you’re like Beabadoobee and love to scroll through adorable red panda content, then we bet you’d love our Instagram account, @redpandanetwork. You can follow along for photos of wild red pandas and updates on red panda conservation with the latest and cutest red panda content from across the web on our stories!
4. Taylor Swift
Photo Credit: Don Arnold/TAS24/Getty
On the iconic Eras tour in Sydney, Australia, Taylor Swift talked about the times she and Sabrina Carpenter spent at the Sydney Zoo. She said they spent “100% of our days off” at the beautiful zoo, enjoying endemic animals like koalas and kangaroos.
Yet, amidst the diverse species in Sydney, the red panda was the star of the show for Taylor. “I’m really all about the red panda,” she says.
We’re not surprised the red panda caught the eye of a style icon like Taylor Swift. With their flashy red fur and adorable black-and-white face, they could never go out of style. Yet, the endangered species is facing the threat of extinction due to anthropogenic forces like deforestation and climate change.
Keeping red pandas in style means protecting their forests and ecosystems. You can support red panda habitat restoration by donating to our Plant a Red Panda Home campaign, which has planted over 640,000 trees in critical habitat.
5. Travis Kelce
Photo credit: Dustin Satloff/Getty Images
Tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and boyfriend to popstar Taylor Swift, Travis shares his girlfriend’s love for red pandas.
He told Vanity Fair about his visit to the Sydney Zoo with Taylor where he “got to see a red panda up close and personal.” He went on to describe the panda as a “friendly raccoon,” explaining, “those things are sweet.”
The zookeeper at the Sydney Zoo warned that this panda was an escape artist, to which Kelce responded, “brownie points.” Their unique personality is one of the reasons red pandas are so well-loved; not only are they adorable but they’re curious and smart, too!
If you, like Travis, love seeing red pandas up close and personal you should join us on an ecotrip to red panda country in Nepal, where you will get to explore red panda habitat and track red pandas in the wild.
Red panda in the wild. Photo credit: Ted Gatlin 2024
We are so glad to see such an outpouring of love for red pandas in the media; they deserve it! This unique, important, and endangered species plays a vital role in its ecosystem and in our hearts. With your help, we can save the red panda from extinction and restore its native habitat so they can thrive in harmony once again!