College lifestyle attracts pungent visitors to campus

By: Taylor Engler

Posted: 5/2/06

There's something stinking up the Syracuse University campus, and its not coming from the fraternity house bathrooms.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the skunk is a member of the weasel family that stands out from other woodland creatures because of the potent odor it releases when a potential attacker startles it. Since skunk mating season occurred in February and March, these intruders have been spotted by students across campus.

"All the (wildlife removal) operators in the city alone, together, we take the better part of 1,000 skunks a year from the area," said Al Burns, wildlife control operator and owner of Animal Control Services of Central New York.

With Disney movies like "Bambi" as an example, one would think that the skunks would stick to the woody forests of rural areas, but in reality the perfect habitat for a skunk is a residential area with both open lawns and shady trees.

"We have a fenced-in backyard, and they still get in," said Dan Sinicrope, a junior civil engineering major. "We've had like three in two years. I have smelled them more than those three times though."

Skunks are also attracted to areas where students reside because of the availability of food left in garbage cans and littered onto the streets. Skunks can easily tear through the plastic bags many students toss outside on the street, reveling in the goodies left over from parties and late-night munchies.

"SU kids invite the skunks," Burns said. "They are well fed on pepperoni pizza and chicken wings. In fact, that's what I use to catch them now."

Especially now that the baby skunks are being born, adult skunks are looking for areas with a lot of food to provide sustenance for their young. With abundant food and few natural predators, the skunks not only find a safe haven to raise their babies in the SU campus, but continue to breed in the area.

"The skunks just overpopulate," Burns said. "They have up to 10 or 11 babies a year, and it doesn't take long at that rate to repopulate."

The problem has gotten out of control to the point that Burns has already removed 130 skunks from the area around SU since January. Burns sees some intense cases of skunk infestation, many brought on by SU students own careless actions.

"Once I had some college kids who were cooking bacon and throwing the grease out the window," Burns said. "I took 23 skunks from under their house; they had been living off the grease. It cost them a fortune"

Besides messing with students' garbage, the only real threat skunks pose is the smell they give off. This musk is not only hard to remove from hair and clothing, but can cause serious pain and temporary blindness if taken in the eye, according to the NYSDEC.

"We have a dog, and it was about 1 a.m. and we were studying for exams, so we let her out. She got skunked," said Gary Elieff, a junior mechanical engineering major. "We went through the whole tomato juice thing. Now we keep Skunk-off in the house."

Businesses such as Burns' will remove skunks for a fee, but since the relocation process of these animals in somewhat cumbersome, they are often killed instead of re-released.

"I would have to take (the skunks) at least five miles away from where I found them and get permission from the owner of the land to leave them there," Burns said. "That never happens, so I euthanize all the skunks I remove."

Students can habituate peacefully with their stinky neighbors, but should be aware that every time they throw out a plastic bag of garbage or uncovered food products, they are attracting more and more to the area.

"Keep your garbage in a metal container with a metal lid and just clean up after yourselves," Burns said. "Just avoid a skunk if you see it. It's not uncommon for skunks to be out in the daytime, but they don't want to be around you anymore than you around them."