Today is: National Panda Day Staff reports National Panda Day, also known as Giant Panda Bear Day and Panda Day, celebrates the giant panda. It sometimes is also used to celebrate the red panda, although this is usually not the case, as red pandas already have their own holiday. The number of giant pandas in the wild has slowly been increasing since the 1970s, when there were only about 1,000. As of 2020, there were about 1,900 giant pandas in the wild, and about 300 in zoos. Still, the giant panda is considered to be vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.