While children may enjoy the cartoon antics of the famous smelly critter Pep Le Pew, students at the College are reporting their own, not so laughable, encounters with Pep look-alikes all over campus.
As anecdotal evidence suggests that the skunk population in Hanover has increased, the skunks have reportedly been hitting all the campus hot-spots, including the entrance of Thayer dining hall, the steps of Baker-Berry library, the bushes behind La Casa, the dumpster by the Gap, the McLaughin Residence Cluster and even the occasional School Street apartment.
Despite the numerous informal reports of skunk activity and skunk sightings, Director of Operations and Facilities, Operations and Management Frank Roberts said that there have been no formal complaints concerning the animals.
Roberts said the likely reason that students are spotting skunks is because they are more aware of the animals' presence than in previous years.
"I would think people are noticing them more this year," Roberts said. "I also think it's something that happens when you have a campus that is the environment we have."
Though business as usual continues at FO&M, students nevertheless are beginning to collect a body of stories concerning their skunk encounters.
Felicia Teller '09 said she attempted to intimidate a skunk lurking around the entrance of the library.
"There was a skunk outside the library ... I flicked my cigarette at it, but I missed it by a little and it ran away," Teller said.
Though Teller's tactics may have scared off that one skunk, other reports confirm that the animals are far from being on the retreat.
Ruslan Tovbulatov '09 said that he and friends even encountered some of the creatures on their way home from a typical weekend night on fraternity row.
Tovbulatov described in detail his run-in with two skunks, referring to the animals as the "devil incognito." He said that he took a different approach than Teller and chose to stare down the animals until they let him be.
"So we stood there, face to face, neither one giving any ground," Tovbulatov said. "I knew that nature was not a force to be reckoned with, but I could not let this little furball of fetor keep me from safety. So I stared it down with the eyes of communist fury, and it was all settled. Whimpering, the skunk scattered into the darkness, never to be seen again."
Tovbulatov said he also managed to photograph the animals as they ran off, so as to verify the encounter.
It would also seem that skunk activity is not limited to the confines of the Dartmouth campus -- with reported sightings stretching all the way to Main Street and School Street in Hanover.
Mike Piccioli '08 said that he had a run-in of his own with one of the creatures near his place of employment: the Gap in downtown Hanover.
While bringing trash to the dumpster behind near the back of the Hopkins Center, Piccioli said that he saw a skunk that looked like trouble.
"The other night I was taking the trash out to the dumpster and no more than 15 feet in front of me, right by the dumpster, I realize that there is a skunk staring straight at me, and it looked pretty skittish and ready to clown on me," he said.
Nevertheless, Piccioli said he backed away and, fortunately, the skunk ran under the dumpster.
Though skunk encounters such as these may have been causing anxiety around town, biology professor Roger Sloboda conjectured that what seems to be a high number of skunks is merely due to "normal population dynamics."
Though Sloboda asserts that he is not a population biologist, he noted that the skunk population tends to rise every few years when they are seen more and more, traipsing in garbage and such. He noted, however, that the population will usually reach a certain size that can no longer be supported, causing the population to fall.
