Saturday, September 4, 2010

Skunks are next to go

From the NY Times:

For residents of northern Manhattan and the Bronx, skunks have become the stinkiest unwanted guests of them all. Earlier this spring, residents of Co-op City complained of the striped stinkers invading the garbage, and Inwood and Washington Heights have dealt with them for several years. Last year, our colleague Jim Dwyer, a longtime Heights resident, wrote about an invasion of Bronx skunks into Manhattan that touched off a great skunk battle at his own co-op. Relocation of the critters, he said, was futile. They just came right back.

And the raccoons will, too. We also have skunks here in Queens.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has anyone thought about the whole ecological chain here?

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a place where skunks were pretty common, and never thought that they were particularly troublesome. A light waft of skunk spray conveyed by a late-March wind was just another sign of impending spring.

Today, I work in Manhattan, and have to walk past, and sometimes ride the subway with, legions of unwashed, urine-spattered winos and, even when they're not in the immediate vicinity, the odors that they leave behind.

Given both experiences, I'll take the skunks any time.

Claire S said...

What smell?

Anonymous said...

Before Freedom Land, the area, now Co-op city was also marsh land. As a Co-op City resident, I can tell you that the area is teeming with wildlife, including geese, rabbits, racoons, moles and skunks.

Residents here forget that. They complain about anything and everything. Leave skunks and wildlife alone.

Anonymous said...

Just take out the head skunk - Bloomberg. Manhattan and all the boroughs will smell better.

Anonymous said...

For a while, the only skunk-like smell I smelled in this city was marijuana. Compared to a lot of the other smells around here, the smell of an actual skunk is not so bad.

neversleep said...

Most of the skunks regularly leave their residential nabes for City Hall or Albany.

Raccoon: the other dark meat.