Welsh rabbit sitting in the grass

Jane Fryer said her kitten Skittles sometimes too closely follows the example of the members at the fraternity where he lives with Fryer’s boyfriend.

“[Skittles] will run around the room at full speed and try to climb up everything. He has no fear, just like the frat boys,” Fryer (sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) said. “I feel, that being in a fraternity, Skittles has taken on many of the aspects of a person living in that environment: large amounts of sleeping and lounging followed by senseless running in circles around the room.”

Fryer’s concerns could be confirmed by a new British study, which says pet owners may want to consider kicking their bad habits before their pets start following their examples.

The study, conducted by professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in England, states that, over time, animals are likely to pick up their owners’ characteristics.

Results of the yearlong study, which will continue for the next six months, show that pets and their owners share many personality traits.

“I am a pretty happy and independent person. My cat is laid-back, and I am, too,” Amber Grieb (junior-management) said. “I guess in a way our personalities are pretty similar.”

Currently, about 2,500 pet owners have completed the survey.

“When you look at the data, you see that dog owners are spontaneous and fun-loving; cat owners tend to be emotionally sensitive and independent; and reptile owners don’t care too much for other people,” Wiseman said.

Wiseman said the most surprising result of his study is that 60 percent of fish owners said their fish have a good sense of humor.

“They are the most content in our sample and they are the ones claiming their pets make them laugh the most,” he said.

Penn State professor Michael Arthur, who teaches GEOSC 040, (The Sea Around Us), does not believe fish share his sense of humor.

“I’ve detected some whimsy in fish. They’ve never laughed at my jokes, though, so I’d have to disagree with these results,” Arthur said.

Previous studies, like that featured in the Psychological Science journal from the University of California in 2004, have found that pet owners often physically resemble their purebred dogs. Judges in the study found that they could match the dogs and their owners solely by their pictures.

Valerie Beam, owner of Meow Meow Pet Sitting, 214 Homestead Lane, said she believes people choose pets that are most like themselves.

“There are cat people and there are dog people. It makes sense that people who are quiet and busy are going to chose to buy a cat rather than a dog,” Beam said. “But that’s not to say that animals don’t have personalities. If I didn’t have a friend, my cat would be one because I swear she knows what I’m talking about.”

Wiseman said it is likely that animals have a big impact on the way their owners think and behave because owners spend time everyday with their pets. He also said the study results could be a product of perceived personality.

UK — A cat shelter has highlighted the importance of getting pets microchipped, after a tabby was reunited with its owner after 10 years.

Staff at Burford’s Blue Cross animal sanctuary reunited Lynx with her owners after the cat spent a decade on the run.

But no-one will ever know how the 12-year-old female tabby ended up in Carterton - more than 60 miles from home.

Not that that bothers relieved owner Patricia Charnet, who had all but given up hope of ever seeing her beloved moggy again.

“It is unbelievable. It is a wonderful feeling,” she said. “If only she could talk, she would have a story to tell.”

Lynx was just two years old when she went missing from the family home in Hook, Hampshire, in 1997.

According to Blue Cross spokesman Mandy Jones, Lynx was brought in to their Shilton Road centre after she had been seen wandering around farmland near Carterton. “Someone who saw her became concerned and, after capturing the animal, brought it to us,” she said.

“She was in good condition and we went through our normal check to see if she was microchipped. Fortunately she was, but it took some detective work to trace the owner.

“I still can’t believe we were able to reunite her with her owner after such a long time. It goes to show how important microchipping is.”

Microchips are implanted beneath an animal’s skin and carry a barcode which can be easily scanned. The number that comes up can be easily checked with Petlog, a national catalogue, but in Lynx’s case, her owner’s telephone number had changed. When they finally tracked down Ms Charnet, they were amazed to discover the cat had been missing for 10 years.

Blue Cross staff named her Bagpuss, but Lynx now has her old name back, as well as her doting owner - and a companion cat which the family had bought to replace her.

UK — A SEABIRD so rare it had reportedly only ever been seen in Europe twice before, was discovered in Brean Down on June 29.

The Indian yellow-nosed albatross - one of only 73,000 left in the world - is classed as endangered by Bird Life International, the global organisation behind bird conservation, and had flown into town from the South Atlantic.

Bird enthusiast Hugh Harris alerted Secret World wildlife rescue in East Huntspill to the extraordinary discovery - after the bird landed at his home in Brean.

Hugh told the Weekly News that he found the bird, which has a wingspan of over two metres, looking exhausted as it walked around on his drive.

He said: “My wife and I couldn’t believe it when we saw it, at first we thought it was just a large seagull or falmer.

“I picked the bird up and was surprised at how light it was - we then took it to Secret World where we were told what it was, and were absolutely dumbstruck.”

Researchers are discovering unprecedented details about the lives of Southern Elephant Seals.

The work is being done by a group of international scientists, including some from the CSIRO and the University of Tasmania.

The researchers attached sensors on 85 elephant seals in early 2003.

Mark Hindell from the University of Tasmania says the data has given scientists a rare insight into the animals.

“And that’s enabling us to do things like establish which bits of the ocean are good for them, which bits are bad, make some models perhaps about how that might change, postulated changes due to global warming and so forth,” he said.

“It’s actually quite a big break through for us.”

“It doesn’t help us in terms of setting up parks to preserve them or anything, but it helps us understand what are the important features driving their populations.”

“And it helps us predict what’s going to happen in the future if things continue to change down there.”

An international team of scientists late last summer glued satellite-transmitting devices to 85 southern elephant seals — the world’s largest — to help them find clues to growing changes in the global climate in the freezing waters surrounding Antarctica.

The devices monitored water temperature, saltiness and depth, transmitting these data to satellites every time the carnivores briefly surfaced for air for three to four minutes.

The lives of these giant marine predators (males weigh up to 11,000 pounds and reach up to 22 feet long) and their prey has always been difficult to study because they often dive to great depths under the ice in unreacheable regions of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.

“The fact that we can let the animals themselves measure the oceanography is extremely exciting, being arguably the best oceanographers, since their survival depends on it,” said Martin Biuw, a marine biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

The southern elephant seals “ranged across the entire Southern Ocean,” swimming thousands of miles a year, Biuw explained. Tracking where these predators went shed light on the location of the most productive waters loaded with prey. The salt and temperature readings the sensors recorded suggest these waters were loaded with nutrients from the water currents that encircle Antarctica and from under the winter ice pack.

The study will not only help scientists learn more about these creatures but also how the environment they dwell in alters over time due to changes in global climate, he added.
Future updates with the sensors should allow them to record chlorophyll levels underneath the ocean surface as well, to see how productive photosynthetic life is around the Antarctic.

The findings are described online Aug. 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Five people made it out of a burning building in Cincinnati early this morning, thanks to some quick thinking teens.

The fire started around 3:00 a.m. in a building at 501 Poplar Street , near Foote Avenue in Bellevue. Two teenage boys were driving by, saw smoke and flames and woke up everyone inside the building. Firefighters say the smoke detectors did not go off because smoke never actually reached the detectors.

The teens are credited with saving the lives of a woman, her three grandchildren and another man plus a pet dog. The woman, Barb Woodall, owned a hair salon on the first floor of the building and she lived in an apartment on the second floor. The man lived in an apartment on the first floor.

There was an explosion as the owner of the building and her three grandchildren were trying to escape. All four suffered minor burns and injuries on their legs and feet. They were treated on the scene.

Four different fire departments were called in to help battle the fire because of the size of the fire and the heat.

The building was destroyed. The cause of the fire is not yet known, but fire officials say it was possibly something electrical.

Brad and Reenie Miller weren’t looking to rescue a horse when they purchased General Longstreet in Schuylkill in 1996.

“We were looking for a horse as a pet,” Brad Miller said.

It turns out, however, that they were saving him from an owner who didn’t give him proper care.

“Something didn’t seem right,” Miller said of the first time he saw General Longstreet. “Turns out, he had been living on rotten tomatoes.”

General Longstreet, 28, now holds command over 14 other horses living at Harbour Stables Inc., a horse rescue farm on Larch Road in Stonington.

Miller believes that finding General Longstreet was no accident.

“The Lord had His hand in it. He placed us where He wants us,” Miller said.

Harbour Stables is a nonprofit farm that restores the health and dignity of animals found in need of care, according to its mission statement.

“We are taking the animals from an uncertain future,” Miller said.

Once the horses are back to health, they are placed in caring homes. Many horses have been given good homes after first traveling through the pastures of Harbour Stables.

“We’ve placed 54 horses over the years,” Miller said.

Some of the horses were removed from abusive homes or companies.

Bo, an 8-year-old Belgian, was rescued from Canada. When his mare was pregnant with him, her urine was collected to make the hormone medication, Premerin. The foals of these mares are of no use to the companies, and are often sold in Europe as food. Bo now shares a pasture with two other draft horses.

Other horses were given to the stables by people who could no longer care for them. Some people sold their horses because of financial difficulty, while others got too sick to care for the animals properly. Whatever the reason, the people at Harbour Stables make sure the horses are safe and cared for. The Millers carefully screen people who are interested in adopting the horses.

“We get a lot of phone calls and people stopping by who are looking to adopt horses; we keep all that information,” Miller said.

When someone calls looking to give away or sell a horse, the Millers help to place the animal. Even though they are at capacity, the Millers always have room for horses that are in serious danger.

“We won’t turn away an emergency case,” Miller said.

All horses stay at the stables for at least 30 days before they are offered for adoption.

“In 30 days, you can start to learn the animal’s personality a little bit. We try to group them by personality,” Miller said of the several separate pastures on the property.

Miller also takes some of his horses to elementary schools so children can learn about the animals. Miller had a miniature horse who went everywhere.

“He went up the elevator with me,” Miller said.

The horse has since been given to a permanent home.

“We’ve had some really good horses that were great with kids, but a good home came along,” Miller said. “I would never deny them that opportunity.”

Harbour Stables is dedicated to educating pet owners and children on the importance of taking good care of animals. They also offer riding camps for kids and adults alike.

Camps are five days long and cost $65. The Degenstein Foundation has donated money to help offset some of the costs for those unable to pay the fee. Miller said the looks on the kids’ faces prove it’s worth it.

“The kids come here and get in and around the horses,” Miller said. “The horses just have a magic over them.”

“I love it, It’s wonderful here,” said Emily Lynch, who participated in her first riding camp.

“This place rocks,” said Josiah Bingaman. Bingaman is a family friend of the Millers, and often helps out around the stables.

“It’s fun,” added Teya Smeal, 11, who rode General Longstreet.

Harbour Stables also leases barn space to the Sunbury Animal Hospital.

“The vets are able to take care of the larger animals here,” Miller said.

Having a vet nearby is helpful to the animals since some of them arrived with serious medical problems.

Zip, 10, acquired equine protozoal myeloencephalitis when he was a show horse. The disease caused permanent nerve damage, so his owner sold him to the Millers. Zip spends his days on trail rides and patiently helping children learn to ride.

William Jacob Riley, a 2-year-old Arabian, is very small for his age. When his mare was pregnant with him, the barn where she lived was also used as a meth lab. Miller believes that the chemicals stunted Riley’s growth. Two other mares at that farm were pregnant. One foal was stillborn and the other was deformed and had to be put down. Riley’s mare came to the Harbour Stables after the police raided the meth lab.

The Millers are hoping to have some community events to raise awareness of the farm. Currently, all funds and supplies for the stables are acquired through donations and fundraisers.

They will have a bake sale in front of Tractor Supply, Shamokin Dam, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 18. They also hope to have square dances at the farm in the fall.

Eventually, they hope to provide riding programs beyond the camps, and are working to procure money to pay for the necessary insurance.

“We’d love to find a corporate sponsor to pay for the liability insurance,” Miller said.

A photograph of an animal taken on Dartmoor (UK) is “almost certainly” not a big cat, according to a local expert.

The picture was taken by falconer Martin Whitley, who stumbled across the creature by accident near Hound Tor.

The area inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles, but Mr Whitley said there was “definitely nothing supernatural” about the animal.

But Danny Bamping, founder of the British Big Cats Society, said he “just couldn’t see it” being a big cat.

Mr Whitley, who owns Dartmoor Hawking, was taking a group of American tourists for a “hawk walk” last month when the animal was spotted about 200 yards (183m) away.

“One of the tourists started pointing and said ‘what’s that’,” he said.

‘A lot bigger’

“We watched it for about 400 yards as it came closer. It was in no hurry and seemed completely indifferent to us.

“There was a group of kids on a nearby tor making quite a racket and it ignored them too.”

Mr Whitley, who was born and brought up in the area, said he has no real idea what the animal was, but is certain it was not a cat or a dog.

“I’ve seen a big cat on the moor before. It was 10 years ago and it was about the size of a collie - this was a lot bigger.

“Later we put a German short-hair pointer in the same spot. It’s about 25 inches to the shoulder and this beast was at least an inch taller and utterly dwarfed it in bulk.

“It was definitely nothing supernatural - ghosts don’t jump puddles and this one did.”

Mr Whitley said his pictures have proved popular with hotel guests at Lewtrenchard Manor, who have been asking him to provide more “beast tours”.

Big cat expert Mr Bamping raised doubts about it being a cat-like animal.

“I’ve studied the pictures and I just can’t see it being a big cat,” he told BBC News.

“I wouldn’t completely rule out a dog or a pony, but my money would be on a hairy wild boar”.

A startling discovery of two massive prehistoric tusks - possibly the largest ever found in the world - could prove to be a “gold mine” for scientists seeking clues into Europe’s past, say Greek and Dutch researchers excavating the site in northern Greece.

The petrified remains of a mastodon - an elephant-like creature - with tusks measuring up to five metres long, were found in an area where excavations have uncovered the remains of several prehistoric animals over the past decade.

The research team said it was the largest tusk ever found from the primitive relative of the elephant.

“To find a tusk five metres long, that was a big surprise,” Evangelia Tsoukala, Assistant Professor of Geology at the University of Thessaloniki, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site.

The second tusk found at the site near the village of Milia, 430km north of Athens, measured 4.6 metres.

“That’s absolutely astonishing. This is a fantastic find,” said Dave Martill, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth in England, an independent expert not connected with the excavation.

“These animals, in their bones, hold a whole load of information about the environment at the time - not just the animal,” Martill said.

Because the tusks have “growth rings in them and you can analyse each individual layer and pick up signals about seasonality and climate. These offer fantastic potential for studying not just the animals themselves but ancient climates.”

Tsoukala led a team which excavated the two tusks from the same animal, together with leg bones and its upper and lower jaw still bearing teeth.

“It’s a very significant find because with these sections of the skeleton we can draw conclusions about this animal and its development,” she said. “We are also looking for clues about its extinction.”

Mastodons were similar to woolly mammoths but had straighter tusks as well as different teeth and eating habits.

They roamed Europe, Asia and North America, but how they became extinct remains a mystery. Mastodons are thought to have disappeared in Europe and Asia some 2 million years ago but survived in North America until 10,000 years ago.

Tsoukala said the male animal discovered in Milia lived about 2.5 million years ago.

“This animal was in its prime. It was 25 to 30 years old; they lived until about 55. It was about 3.5 metres tall at the shoulder, and weighed around 6 tons,” Tsoukala said.

Veteran Dutch researcher Dick Mol, who aided the Greek excavation, said he hoped the find at Milia could also yield clues about the mastodon’s extinction.

“It’s really a gold mine,” said Mol, a research associate at the Museum of Natural History in Rotterdam. “These are the best preserved skeletons in the world of this species.”

Plant material found near the tusks will be analysed in Greece and the Netherlands, and could give scientists a “better idea of the environment this animal was living in,” Mol said.

The Milia bone remains will also be scoured for the remote chance of finding DNA material.

Researchers from Germany and the United States recently analysed genetic material from an American mastodon recovered from fossils up to 130,000 years old found in Alaska, providing clearer insight into elephants’ evolutionary development.

If DNA is recovered from the much older Milia animal - which Mol acknowledges is “very doubtful” - it could allow researchers to compare it directly to European and American mastodons at an unprecedented level of detail.

The five-metre tusk at Milia was discovered last October by an excavation machine operator working at a sand quarry, but it took months for the scientific investigation of the site to be organised.

Tsoukala, who has been conducting excavations in the region since 1990, found another mastodon tusk measuring 4.39 metres in the same area 10 years ago. She said the latest discovery is more significant because the skeleton remains are more complete.

Locally excavated fossils are carefully removed from the ground after being protected in plaster “jackets,” and are currently displayed at the village’s tiny museum of natural history.

Tsoukala is urging the government to fund a new site.

“We need a new museum because this is valuable material for international reference,” she said. “Whoever wants to study this animal must come to Milia.”