The animal kingdom

•The ongoing feud between two Warwick, R.I., households has intensified, according to an August complaint. Kathy Melker and Craig Fontaine charged that not only has neighbour Lynne Taylor been harassing them with verbal insults and threats, but that Taylor has now taught her cockatoo to call Melker, on sight, a nasty epithet (which rhymes with “clucking bore”).

•At least two teams of Swiss researchers are developing tools that can improve farmers’ efficiency and reduce the need for shepherds.

The research group Kora has begun outfitting sheep with heart rate monitors that, when predators approach, register blood-pressure spikes that are texted to the shepherd, summoning him to the scene. Another inefficiency is cow farmers’ frequent needs to locate and examine cows that might be in heat, but professors at a Bern technical college are testing placing thermometers in cows’ genitals, with text messages alerting the farmer that a specific cow is ready for mating.

•Researchers writing in the journal Animal Behaviour in July hypothesized why male pandas have sometimes been seen performing handstands near trees. They are urinating, the scientists observed, and doing handstands streams the urine higher on the tree, presumably signaling their mating superiority.

A San Diego Zoo researcher involved in the study noted that an accompanying gland secretion gives off even more personal information to other pandas than the urine alone.

•Spending on health care for pets is rising, of course, as companion animals are given almost equal status as family members. In Australia, veterinarians who provide dental services told Queensland’s Sunday Mail that they have even begun to see clients demanding cosmetic dental work – including orthodontic braces and other mouth work to give dogs “kissable breath” and smiles improved by removing the gap-tooth look.