Pet Buzz

• A Belgian Malinois named Alba has been catching rule breakers in Maryland's North Branch Correctional Institution, where inmates have been smuggling in cell phones. The phones often are hidden in pieces and in difficult-to-detect places such as shoe heels, book bindings and toilet pipes. But Alba and other specially trained dogs are able to detect the specific scent that cell phones carry. The state's five cell phone-sniffing dogs in Maryland's prison system found 59 phones last year, according to Wired magazine.

• If your greyhound takes off on you, you'll never catch him. The National Greyhound Association reports that it takes an elite greyhound three steps to hit a cruising speed of 45 mph.

• Bear-proof canisters may be more bear-friendly than previously thought, according to The New York Times. The BearVault 500 had been tested successfully in Yellowstone National Park and at the Folsom (Calif.) Zoo to withstand all bear break-ins, including those by grizzlies. But the BearVault didn't figure on the bear known as Yellow Yellow. The black bear in the High Peaks region of the northeastern Adirondacks has managed to master a canister opening technique that often confuses campers. Yellow Yellow was fingered for the break-ins by her radio collar, which put her at the scene of the crimes. She opens canisters by pushing in the first tab with her teeth, turning the lid with her head, and then pushing in the second tab. Other bears are following her lead, campers report.

• Snakes are able to move forward by using their belly scales, which are oriented to snag on irregularities. They then push their bellies into the ground to produce friction and move ahead.