While today's wet weather and post-weekend blues might not exactly scream 'party', it's certainly a day of celebration as giant pandas are no longer endangered.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List, the official status of the giant panda has been changed from 'endangered' to 'vulnerable' thanks to a population rebound in China, that estimates the total number of giant pandas in the world at 2,060.
The update revealed: 'Evidence from a series of range-wide national surveys indicate that the previous population decline has been arrested, and the population has started to increase,' as a result of the Chinese's government's efforts to help protect the adorable creature.
To celebrate this momentus occasion, we've rounded up 10 ways to rejoice in the animal's new status.
1. Don't remove your mascara
If you've ever been caught out in the rain without an umbrella (daily occurrence anyone?) or stepped out of the shower and almost slipped over at the sight of your mascara-streaming face in the mirror, fear not because this is the exact look you should be going for today.
Post-work drinks tonight? Treadmill session at the gym? Forget the makeup wipes and let those mascara streams flow.
Don't act like the panda, be the panda.
2. Play Desiigner's Panda on repeat
Panda, Panda, Panda, Panda, Panda, Panda, Panda
3. Watch this panda sneeze
It never gets boring.
4. Draw on Marc Jacobs-inspired eyes
Take inspiration from Marc Jacobs' Gothic Beauty Wonderland earlier this year and paint a dark lip, smudgy eyeshadow and black eye rings to achieve your bespoke gothic/panda vibe.
5. Make a Thai vegetable curry using bamboo
A panda's diet is basically just leaves, stems and shoots of various bamboo plants. To keep up their energy levels, pandas need to eat up to 38kg of bamboo a day so eat like a panda tonight by making a huge Thai vegetable curry and throw some drained bamboo shoots in there.
6. Gather your friends and dance like pandas
There's not many pandas left in the world so get a group of your closest pandas pals and throw some panda-inspired shapes after work.
Pandas who dance together…
7. Sleep like a panda
Pandas sleep about 10 hours a day, 2-4 hours at a time so when you finish your Thai curry this evening, crawl into bed and get some shut eye.
You earned it.
8. Monochrome your outfit
9. Go to a climbing wall
Pandas can reportedly climb as high as 4,000 metres to feed on higher slopes in the summer. Get yourself down to you local climbing wall and show those pandas some competition.
Feel like making it harder for yourself? Hang some strawberry laces at the top of the climbing wall and try to eat them without hands.
You daredevil, you.
10. Enjoy some alone time
The giant panda prefers to be alone, spending 2/3 of its day feeding and the remainder resting.
Eat your curry on your lonesome tonight, climb into bed and pop on Kung Fu Panda on your laptop.
Happy panda party!
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
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