Red Panda - Cultural Depictions

Cultural Depictions

The red panda was recognized as the state animal of Sikkim, India in the early 1990s, and was the mascot of the Darjeeling Tea Festival.

In southwest China, red pandas are hunted for their fur, especially for the highly valued bushy tails from which hats are produced. In these areas, the fur is often used for local cultural ceremonies. In weddings, the bridegroom traditionally carries the hide. The "good-luck charm" red panda-tail hats are also used by local newlyweds. This practice may be quite old, as the red panda seems to be depicted in a 13th-century Chinese pen-and-ink scroll showing a hunting scene. Little or no mention of the red panda is made in the culture and folklore of Nepal.

An anthropomorphic red panda was featured as Master Shifu, the Kung Fu teacher, in the 2008 film Kung Fu Panda and its 2011 sequel Kung Fu Panda 2. Some of the comments about this film indicate the lack of awareness about the red panda in the United States when the first film was released. Although most of the reviewers got the species correct, some nevertheless mistook it for a tiny wolf, a rodent, and a lemur. In an interview, Dustin Hoffman also indicated he did not know much about the animal when he first agreed to voice the character. The red panda Futa inspired the character of Pabu, an animal companion in the animated U.S. TV series The Legend of Korra.

In 2005, Babu, a male red panda at Birmingham Nature Centre in Birmingham, England, escaped and briefly became a media celebrity, before being recaptured. He was subsequently voted "Brummie of the Year", the first animal to receive this honor.