Five stories from the south you may have missed

A missing dog being hoisted to safety from cliffs and firefighters rescuing a cow stuck between two trees were among this week’s most popular reads.

In a week dominated by animal stories, we have picked five articles from the past seven days across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Berkshire and Oxfordshire to keep you up to date.

A “very lucky” pet dog has been rescued after spending more than a week stuck around cliffs on the Dorset coast.

Kimmeridge Coastguard Rescue Team (CRT) said its members were alerted to a spaniel trapped on a beach at Egmount Point while they were training on Tuesday evening.

A rope team from Swanage Coastguard was brought in to lower rescuers from the clifftop to the beach below. They then managed to entice her into a recovery bag to be hoisted back up the cliff.

She was reunited with her owner, eight days after running off while on a walk.

A cow has been rescued after getting its head stuck between two trees.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue service teamed up with animal rescue teams from Lyndhurst and Winchester to save the animal in the village of Crux Easton.

On-call firefighters from Kingsclere were sent to the scene at 19:30 GMT on Saturday.

Crews used a telehandler and animal rescue techniques to lift and release the unharmed cow to safety.

A librarian who works at a school named in memory of the one where Jane Austen studied says she was “excited” to discover she had family connections to the author.

Joanne Wenman works at The Abbey School in Reading, named after the Reading Abbey Gateway where Austen was educated from 1785.

Ms Wenman’s 11th great-grandfather is Thomas Austen, also an ancestor of Jane Austen, or as the librarian explained to the BBC: “That makes me sixth cousin six times removed from Jane Austen.”

Thomas Austen was born in 1534, which was 241 years before Jane was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775.

A wildlife park has welcomed the birth of its second rhino calf in 2025, marking a rare success for the species in captivity.

Cotswold Wildlife Park said the female, named Mo, was born to Ruby, a 19-year-old white rhino, earlier than keepers expected.

She is Ruby’s sixth calf with breeding male Monty and the 13th rhino born at the Oxfordshire park in the past 12 years.

It is difficult to catch rhino births on camera as females usually give birth during the night but the quick-thinking team at the park managed record the unique moment.

The disappearance of three white-tailed eagles who were part of a successful conservation programme that started on the Isle of Wight is being investigated by police.

Forestry England said satellite trackers from two eagles were found in September, apparently cut off and dumped close to the birds’ last recorded location.

The missing birds are part of a project led by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to reintroduce the birds which had been extinct in England for more than two centuries. The charity said the finds were “devastating”.

Thirty-seven birds were initially released on the Isle of Wight in 2019. Several breeding pairs have since formed with six chicks being born in the wild for the first time since the 1780s.