Past Animal Beat Columns The elegant, fascinating aces of the bug world (08/07/99) They are the hot-dogging ace pilots of the bug world. Often decked out in iridescent colors of green and blue and red, they are agile aerialists. In fact, if Igor Sikorsky and Tinker Bell had had a baby, it would have been a dragonfly. Animal beat pet photo contest (07/31/99) The rules are simple and the rewards are . . . well, there will at least be some Animal Beat T-shirts. But really, the true prize is the chance to see your wonderful pet on the boston.com Web site. Scientist is Ape's saving grace (07/26/99) Biological anthropologist Michele Goldsmith remembers a day last year as she and four trackers trailed a group of mountain gorillas through the dense vegetation of the Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. Pet contest goes cyber (07/24/99) Animal Beat Pet Photo Contest: The rules are simple and the rewards are . . . well, there will at least be some Animal Beat T-shirts. But, really, the true prize is the chance to see your wonderful pet on the Boston.com Web site. Flights of fancy: PBS series isn't just for the birds (07/17/99) European swifts are so at home in the air, they even sleep and mate on the fly. The albatross, with its 6-foot wingspan, is willing to travel 1,000 miles to bring home the birdie equivalent of the bacon for its chicks. Dog's along? Then show some restraint (07/10/99) Will common training commands such as ``Sit!'' and ``Stay!'' soon be joined by ``Buckle up''? The accident injuring horror novelist Stephen King last month seems to have touched off a great buzz about safety belts for pets. In the accident, a van driver in Maine was distracted by his unruly Rottweiler and swerved into King as he was out for a stroll. In touch with animals: Author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson takes on emotions (06/26/99) As a camera focuses on them, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson turns to his 2-year-old son and mock whispers, ``Don't say cheese here.'' ``Here'' is at a gathering of the Boston Vegetarian Society at the Peace Abbey, where fromage is a four-letter word. The chemistry between us: Gender and pets (06/12/99) Does your dog keep better track of your hormonal cycles than you do? Why do women outnumber men at animal rights gatherings by a ratio of 3 or 4 to 1? Why is it usually men who are responsible for violent animal cruelty? A field guide to spiders in the house (05/29/99) Spiders get a bad rap, according to Ed O'Brien, an assistant curator at Zoo New England. ``People get creeped out by them,'' he says. ``They often have a real aversion to them.''