When the new term starts many of you will be escorting your younger sisters or brothers to school for the first time. They will be going to Kindergarten.
In another part of the world another Kindergarten starts, but a Kindergarten (KG) with a difference. The students are not children but baby Pandas. Further, they will go to school to learn to play! What fun.
Pandas are perhaps one of the world's most beloved but endangered species — they were almost extinct, down to about 1500.
But now with the help of old-fashioned care and modern medicine, there have been a record number of births in captivity. Twenty-five baby pandas were born in captivity in China in 2006.
Learning to play
The researchers at the Woolong National Reserve in the Sichuan Province of China decided that a KG was needed to encourage the baby pandas to learn to play with one another. They would thus learn much needed social skills. When they grew up this would help them mate and prevent the extinction of the breed.
In January, the public in China was invited to name the "babies" who, thus far were known by numbers only.
Sixteen panda babies were "admitted" to the kindergarten. The KG was in the snow — the natural habitat of the "students". It was delightful to watch these cuddly animals gambol in the snow.
All the amenities we have in parks — swings, slides, benches, were there for these special students. Observing their behaviour, researchers found that here too "schoolroom bullies" were present! These aggressive bullies tried to hog the facilities.
Let's all strive to keep our precious animal friends from going extinct.
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