It is known as an adorable animal, a symbol of Chinese diplomacy, the poster child for endangered animals, the poster child for charismatic megafauna who get too much attention for being endangered, and a creature that's really bad at sex (with exceptions). (theverge.com)
It's hard to beat charismatic megafauna for getting attention, though in the Second Life context they can get a bit distorted: it looks in one of the photos as though there might be some delegates on hand from a Furry convention. (epolitics.com)
Only a few tens of thousands of years ago, such charismatic megafauna ruled the earth. (science.sciencemag.org)