Fairfield’s campus has many new sights this year: the construction of the welcome center, the new president, the resurrection of skateboarders and skunks. Yes, skunks!
“They’re everywhere!” said Mark Montaruli ’07. “Walking back from the library, up to the townhouses, or even to Sunday night mass at the Egan Chapel. Everywhere I go, I run into skunks.”
John Gallagher ’06 says he is scared of skunks.
“At night, I always keep an eye on bushes looking for movement,” said Gallagher.
So is the skunk population really increasing on campus?
Paul Miller of the Animal Control Center of Fairfield says yes.
Miller says the skunk population works in a wave-like manner. In a given region, the number of skunks is directly proportional to the rate of skunks infected with rabies. Skunk population differs each year, and follows a continous cycle. A year with a high population is followed by a year with a low population.
This year, the Animal Control Center of Fairfield has put down 18 skunks infected with rabies, a high number, compared to the six they put down last year.
“A number this high of rabies cases indicates a period of skunk population at its peak,” said Miller.
Because of this, should students, like Gallagher, feel threatened by the influx of skunks on campus?
According to Skunk Infor, a wildlife control services Web site, skunks are dangerous. They are nocturnal animals and known for “spraying” a foul smelling vapor. The animals do this as a defense mechanism when they feel threatened.
A human sprayed by a skunk can become ill. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and burning of the eyes and skin. While these symptoms remain for a few hours, the skunk can leave an odor with a person for days.
But Fairfield’s Public Safety represenative David Salthouse said skunks on campus are not a problem. Salthouse disagreed with Miller and said that although it seems like there is an influx of skunks on campus, there actually hasn’t been an increase.
He said that because Fairfield is planting a large number of grass seeds, skunks are more visible when they come out to eat the seeds. Because there is no skunk road kill on campus Salthouse believes this is a good sign there has not been an increase in the population.
“In recent history, there have been no reported incidents of a skunk harming anyone on campus,” he said. “A skunk is more scared of a person than a person is of it. At sight of a human, they usually just run for cover.”
As long as the skunks remain harmless, Salthouse said, the school does not have any further plans to rid the campus of them. He said they are not worth the trouble if they are not harming members of the university.
If skunks were to become a problem in the future, “Fairfield University would most likely call in a private pest control to trap, not exterminate, the skunks on campus,” according to Salthouse.
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