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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1984)
Wednesday, December 5, 1984/ r The Battalion/Page 3 Youngest Reveille begins reign By SARAH OATES Staff Writer At a mere 12 weeks, she’s one of the youngest First Ladies in history. Reveille V, the new Texas A&M mascot and “First Lady of Aggieland” arrived Sunday to take over mascot duties for Re veille IV, who made her last offi cial appearance Saturday in Aus tin at the Texas A&M versus University of Texas game. “Everybody’s real excited,” Hans Meinardus, Company E-2 mascot corporal said of the sable and white American Collie. Com pany E-2 is responsible for taking care of the mascot. He said in a phone interview Sunday that the purebred pup spent her First day on campus re ceiving visitors and playing with Reveille IV. “They’re getting along well,” Meinardus said. “There’s no an imosity between them.” E-2 chose the puppy from more than 15 American Collies and other breeds of dogs offered to replace Reveille IV. “We had a lot of offers,” he nd foritSiHI 83 ^- chose her on the basis of personality, general character, coat color, gait, size and express ion.” Meinardus said the outfit pre ferred a pedigreed Collie because eds ten spoiled! usion, she bir that! ■1 have as in didn't meat >ly meant! old meshei itioned." nversatiom e miserable easy ben: 1'hy don't wereW® 1 it, het 'e her,” 'thing to i. “WW 1 nun? purebreds tend to be healthier than mixed breeds. “Mutts don’t live as long as pedigreed dogs,” he said. “With a pedigree, you know what the dog’s background is. Reveille V comes from a long line of cham pions.” The puppy was donated by Collie breeder Ray Carrel of Del Rio, Texas. “I always wanted one of my dogs to go to A&M,” Carrel said Monday. “I hope she’ll make a good mascot. I’ve been an Aggie fan since I came to Texas in 1943.” Meinardus said he will begin training Reveille V during the Christmas holidays and that she will be sent to obedience school during the summer. Her first official appearance will be at an A&M basketball game, but Meinardus hasn’t de cided which one she will attend. After nine-and-a-half years with the University, Reveille IV leaves today to begin her retirement at the Bryan home of Dr. Lee Phil lips, Texas A&M’s director of Continuing Education. “Hans Meinardus asked me if I would take her,” Phillips said. “Gosh, how can you refuse an honor like that?” The Collie’s new home is a far cry from dorm life — she’s re tiring to a spacious covered patio, complete with ceiling fan. Apply for Fish Camp lead staff by Thursday Reveille V meets Reveille IV. By KAREN BLOCH Reporter Though Fish Camp doesn’t offi cially begin until August, the plan ning is already under way. Applications for chairman, sub chairman and recreation coordina tor are being accepted through 5 p.m. Thursday at the Student Y desk, 213 Pavilion. Anyone who was a counselor or staff member at Fish Camp ’84 and will attend A&M next fall is eligible to apply for the positions. Applicants cannot be on University scholastic probation and must have a 2.25 grade-point ratio. Stuaents who were not counselors or staff members last year can apply to be a counselor. Applications will be available on Jan. 28. “It’s real important that people re alize that to apply you have to have attended last year’s camp as a coun selor or staff member,” Fish Camp Director Hayes Blackstock said. “You need to know how Fish Camp works before you can be a chair man.” Last year about 150 people ap plied for staff (chairmen, sub-chair- men and recreation coordinators), Blackstock said. From these appli cants 16 chairmen, 16 sub-chairmen and three recreation coordinators were chosen. “We don’t look for anything spe cific when we select our staff,” Blackstock said. “It takes all kinds of people to make camp a success.” The goal of Fish Camp is to give the freshmen a positive and realistic view of college life. At camp, fresh men are taught about Aggie tradi tions and given the opportunity to meet other freshmen and upper classmen in a relaxed atmosphere. Fish Camp is divided into four, four-day sessions. Each of these ses sions is broken into four individual camps. A chairman and sub-chairman will be responsible for each of the 16 camps. The chairman and sub-chair man select the counselors, do admin istrative work and keep in close con tact with the Fish Camp directors and counselors. Recreation coordinators must at tend three camp sessions. They are responsible for organizing intramu rals, preparing music for camp mix ers and assisting with administrative details. Traditionally students who attend the last session don’t return to Col lege Station until the day before classes begin, but that will be chang ing this year. “I felt it was hard to come back and start classes right away,” Blacks tock said. “We’ll be able to leave a four-day break between Camp D and the first day of classes since school will start on .Sept, 2, later than usual.” Network works to save beached marine animals 3lt m, By KIRSTEN DIETZ Reporter i^Lucky” deserves his name. Il'The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin became entangled in a shrimper’s net in the Gulf of Mexico. The crew was able to keep him alive until the boat reached Galveston, where he was rushed to SeaArama for care. Despite his serious injury, Lucky re sponded to treatment and eventually tecanie a performer at SeaArama. lAVliile Lucky was not technically considered a stranded mammal, he was adopted by the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network as its official symbol, because he rep resents the survivors of dangers cre ated by man. ii.ucky is the only wild dolphin to be successfully nursed back to health in Texas. All other stranded mam mals have died, despite the efforts jide by the Texas Marine Mammal Binding Network. The network’s goal is to recover and rehabilitate a live dolphin or whale and return it back to the ocean. The network is a volunteer organization operating in five re gions along the Texas coast from the Louisiana oorder to Corpus Christi. Texas A&M is the coordinating headquarters of the network. Dr. Raymond Tarpley and Greg Schwab, associate researchers for Texas A&M’s Department of Veteri nary Anatomy, are the coordinators of the program, which began in No vember 1980. Since then, 167 animals have been stranded on the Texas coast and 17 were alive when stranded. Most of the strandings occur during three months: March (55 total), April (21 total) and November (15 total). Tarpley said most of the Texas strandings are individual strandings of rare species. “To save one of these particular species would add a lot to the science of cetology,” Tarpley said. Otology is the zoology of whales and related aquatic mammals. When a stranding is reported, the stranding rescue team in that region goes to the site. Tarpley and Schwab visit only live strandings because of the distance from College Station to the Gulf of Mexico coast. If the animal is alive, first aid is administered on the spot, and the animal is transferred to a holding fa cility for treatment. The animal is put under 24-hour observation and its respiration and behavior are monitored. If the animal is dead, data and samples of tissue are collected at the site. If the death has been recent, the body is brought to Texas A&M where Tarpley and Schwab perform a necropsy (autopsy) to determine the cause of death. Copies of the collected data are sent to the Southeastern Regional Stranding Network headquarters in Florida and then to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the collection center for stranding data from around the country. Basically, two types of strandings occur. Mass strandings, which in-x volve a large number of animals, and single strandings, which are the type that usually occurs along the Texas coast, Tarpley said. While scientists are not sure why the animals become stranded, Tar pley said single strandings usually seem due to ill health. “Once on the beach, the effects of exposure cause health to plummet and the gravitational pull on the pul monary and cardiovascular system creates a stress,” Tarpley said. Sometimes a healthy animal will come close to shore and stay in the vicinity of the sick animal. “It’s as if there’s such a social bond in these animals that they tend to support one another when one is in some sort of trouble or distress,” Tarpley said. “It’s almost as if when one is sick, the other one or two, or however many are around, can’t bring themselves to leave. Reasons for the individual’s illness can include bacterial infections, par asites and the ingestion of foreign objects. For example, two short-snouted spinner dolphins washed up on the beach in Port Aransas the last week of October. Both had lung worms. However, the female, who was the sickest, lived two days longer than the male, who Tarpley said was in better shape. He thinks the male died faster because of stress. “I’m just theorizing that a healthy animal is going to be more recogniz- ant, more aware of his environment and therefore more easily stressed by the variables that the environ ment presents,” Tarpley said. “A sick animal is going to be to the point of not caring and therefore not stressed as much.” In January, a female pygmy sperm whale and her calf stranded themselves on a Galveston beach. A necropsy of the calf revealed he died from a severe inflammation of the lining of the abdominal cavity and its organs caused by the obstruction of the first two stomach chambers by plastic bags. A garbage bag, bread wrapper, corn chip bag and pieces of two other plastic bags were ingested just prior to the stranding. Tarpley said it was possible the calf mistook the floating bags for schools of squid. The network has a 24-hour hot line feeding into Texas. A&M for the public to call and report strandings. It was established six months ago. COMPLETE TOUR MUSICAL EDUCATION. LISTEN TO fEACHERS ;y will M® 1 ■gressorsl^ ing have akecoi mtry. Albums Cassettes AVAILABLE ON CAPITOL RECORDS AND HIGH-QUALITY XDR® CASSETTES. ©1984 United Artists Corporation Oldest record store in Bryan-College Station Serving the area for 21 years! TAPES 1005 S. Coulter Bryan College Ave CiviM £ Toyota Ron Yokum a i u Te*«Ave * Stephen F. Austin 90 School