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
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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.
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