Just look at that smile! This week’s featured shelter pet is Sweet Tea, a fawn and white pitbull mix up for adoption at the Smithtown Animal Shelter. She is estimated to be around two years old.
Sweet Tea
Sweet Tea arrived at the shelter on Feb. 13 after being found wandering busy roads trying desperately to get into passing cars.
This loving girl had signs of having had a recent litter and was a little underweight. She is an energetic and social dog that seems to love anyone that will show her attention and is showing a healthy interest in other dogs as well as cats. She would do best in a household with children ages 13 and older.
If you would like to meet Sweet Tea, please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with her in a domestic setting.
The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Visitor hours are currently Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only). Formore information, call 631-360-7575 or visit www.townofsmithtownanimalshelter.com.
As Bellone Rides Off, Others Step Forward. Editorial cartoon by
Kyle Horne:
kylehorneart.com
@kylehorneart
It is shaping up to be a big election season for the residents of Suffolk County. It may be early in 2023, but we’re already thinking about Election Day. County Executive Steve Bellone (D) is termed out, triggering massive turnover across levels of local government.
As local Democratic and Republican committees put forward their slate of candidates for county executive, town supervisor and various legislative positions, it is time for We the People to do our homework.
County, town and village officials have a different set of responsibilities than those serving on the state or federal levels. Their duties locally include making decisions about land use, law enforcement, roadwork, waste management, recreational facilities and matters that affect our everyday lives.
Preserving open space, treating our garbage and paving roads are not issues of Democrat versus Republican. These matters impact every resident, which is why it’s important to put aside party affiliation when we enter the voting booth this year.
Experience matters.
Before you vote, take a look at the candidates’ respective backgrounds. Does a candidate have relevant experience in the public or private sectors that will aid his or her decision making? Here at TBR News Media, we will take a deep dive into these candidates over the coming months, introducing our readers to their professional backgrounds and policy positions.
We know all the candidates will have much to say in the months ahead, and many will back their goals for our future with concrete plans.
As journalists, it is our job to provide our readers with the information necessary to make informed decisions on Election Day. We take this responsibility seriously and look forward to following these elections closely.
In the meantime, we remind our readers that you play a part in this as well. By writing letters to the editor about the various local races, you have the opportunity to interpret and contextualize our election coverage. Letters are your chance to influence the shape of our democracy, so don’t squander it.
Before voting, remember to research your ballot thoroughly, check your party affiliation at the door and keep an open mind. We will be here to help along the way.
I have had one of those weeks where the phrase “It’s a small world after all” applies.
Let’s start with events from over three decades ago, shall we?
I had spent considerable time with Michelle when I was in college, as we both loved biology and studied coenzymes together.
I had met Michelle’s father several times, mostly when a group of us visited her house. Her father, who was a doctor, was a wonderful host.
I had also met Michelle’s father’s partners in his medical practice. We spoke to each other on a first-name basis.
One of his partners and I were in a spacious kitchen as the sun was setting over a nearby hill. The partner asked me my last name.
When I spelled it out, he studied me closely.
“I had a roommate in medical school with exactly the same last name,” he said.
I held my breath.
“His first name was Ivan.”
A small electric shock worked its way through my body.
“That was my father,” I replied.
“Was?” he asked.
My father had died months earlier after an exhausting and painful battle with cancer.
I hadn’t developed “reporter” mode, which is what my children call it when questions leap at rapid fire pace from my brain to my mouth. Instead, I tried to imagine this man and my father as roommates in medical school.
I asked a few questions, for which he had short and not particularly informative answers. Later that night, I called my mom to tell her about the interaction. She said she knew the man and that he and my father were roommates and friends for a short time.
That brings me to story number two. I frequently receive pitch emails from people in the field of public relations. These executives from all over the country and the world — including Japan and Australia — email me with ideas to get their clients into the TBR newspapers.
I can’t always see a direct link between the coverage of stories in a community newspaper on Long Island and ideas that sometimes seem localized to other parts of the planet. When the connection seems tenuous, I don’t always read the emails all that carefully.
Recently, I received one such pitch and, despite not having a strong interest in the subject, read through the entire thing. The public relations executive was suggesting we cover a lecturer, author and authority figure in a particular field.
The first and middle names sounded familiar. When I got to the end of the pitch, where the email shared the person’s background, I realized that this woman and I attended the same college.
In fact, when I saw her picture, I immediately recognized her. She looked remarkably similar to how she looked decades ago —so, kudos to her for an ability to defy the effects of aging and gravity. That, I thought as I looked at her wrinkle-free face, could also be a topic she shares with audiences at conferences.
She not only attended college at the same time and place, but was in the same dorm for three years. In our sophomore year, I was her Secret Santa, which means that I bought small gifts for her and asked friends and roommates to leave them surreptitiously outside her dorm room. It’s a fun gift exchange and improves mental health during exams and amid shorter daylight hours.
One night, I sat at a dinner with my friends, before the “Secret Santa reveal,” suppressing a satisfied smirk as her roommate described what a wonderful Secret Santa her friend had.
Her roommate quoted from the poem I had left her (in my roommate’s considerably more aesthetically pleasing handwriting) with a bottle of bubble bath. Wouldn’t it be funny if the secret to her youthful appearance were bubble baths, which she started using many years ago after getting an inexpensive Secret Santa gift? Probably not.
Either way, it’s a small world where unexpected connections can and do crop up, even in random emails.
Adear friend of mine just celebrated her 65th birthday this week, and she regards it as a significant number. “How did I get here so fast?” she asks. She also recognizes that she is getting older. That might even be a little scary.
Yes, she is now covered by Medicare. This is both an asset and a shock. When she looks at her new Medicare card, she wonders how this could be. Is she really now eligible for Medicare? Her grandmother was on Medicare, surely not her. But there is her name; the reality is undeniable.
“Well,” she silently acknowledges, “it’s good to have that coverage.” But the sight still stings a bit.
Part of her response is the awareness that she is aging, that she has entered the first phase of the three-part delineation of older age. There is the young-older, from 65-75; then the middle-older, from 75-85; and the third segment, 85-95. Whoever decides and names these demographic groupings seems to have been unable to imagine any group beyond that point. Maybe it should be called “The Beyond Expectations Group.”
With her new realization comes a vow to concentrate on her health and to make the ensuing years hardy ones. She has vowed to pay more attention to her diet, to make better choices concerning what she eats. More fruits and veggies are in store. But no amount of blueberries and kale can eliminate aging. She has now followed through with her long-held intention to work with a trainer. And she is getting a new mattress to help her sleep better.
My friend is doing something helpful for herself. She is turning concerns of aging and the rapid passing of time into better health actions so as to control how she wants to age. Life for her will no longer be just on automatic pilot.
Although there are more older people in America than ever before, aging is fearful for 87% of the population, according to a survey of those turning 65 conducted by Pfizer. It’s called FOGO — fear of getting old.
Why are people afraid of getting old?
There are a number of reasons. Aging can diminish employment prospects. It is a given that older employees earn more than younger newcomers, and while it is illegal to discriminate by age, we all know that such bias exists. It is no wonder, then, that plastic surgeons do face-lifts to combat wrinkles and laugh lines, adjust sagging necks and erase any other evidence of aging. And it is not only women who undergo such procedures. Many men feel the need to blunt evidence of having lived into and past middle age.
People fear losses: of physical ability, of their good looks, of sufficient finances, of memory, of loved ones and consequently of being lonely, and even of their health shortly to be burdened with chronic diseases. Underlying all this is the fear of losing independence.
Interestingly, only 10% in the survey said they were afraid of dying.
Other cultures respect and may even venerate older members of society. Aging can bring people an enhanced sense of gratitude, a calmer demeanor, an awareness of what is truly important, greater ability to resolve conflicts and even an inclination toward forgiveness. Elders are assumed to have accumulated some wisdom just from more years of living and are respected for that.
Of one thing, my friend is sure. When we consider milestones, it seems like the time between them is little more than the blink of an eye. She clearly remembers the details of her Sweet 16 party, the fun of turning 21, her graduation from law school and now suddenly, to be in the Final Frontier is one swift stroke of time after the other. Blink and you are 65. And along comes the recognition that the future is no longer assured.
My friend does not want to go quietly into older age.
A Column Promoting a More Earth-friendly Lifestyle
By John L. Turner
Photo from John Turner
Most of us own an electric dryer to dry our clothes. In the summer you want the warm and damp air generated from dryers to be vented to the outside. But wouldn’t you want that warm, moisture- laden air to vent inside in the winter to help keep your home warm, perhaps resulting in less furnace activity?
Well, there’s a product available on-line or at local homeimprovement stores that does just that. Called a Dryer Heat Saver or Dryer Heat Diverter, it’s a rectangular box fitted into your dryer vent hose and held in places by O-rings. It has a baffle or shunt to direct the hot air where you want it — inthe summer to the outside but in the winter into your house. A screen prevents lint (which needs to be occasionallyremoved) from entering your house.
So why not take advantage of the energy your clothes dryer has produced to warm your home and in so doing, giving your furnace a little bit of a break?
A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
Sleep may help the brain remove waste, such as those all-too-dangerous beta-amyloid plaques linked to Alzheimer's disease. METRO photo
A few extra ZZZs can help clear brain clutter
By David Dunaief, M.D.
Dr. David Dunaief
Cognitive loss, or mental decline, is a common concern as we age. So much so that a cottage industry of app-based games has sprouted to help keep our brains sharp.
What do we know about the brain, really, though? Startlingly little. We do know that certain drugs, head injuries and lifestyle choices have negative effects, along with numerous neurological, infectious, and rheumatologic disorders and diseases.
Some, like dementia, Parkinson’s, and strokes, are recognized for some of their effects on the brain. However, others – lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psychiatric mood disorders, diabetes and heart disease – also can have long-term effects on our brains.
These disorders generally have three signs and symptoms in common: they cause either altered mental status, physical weakness, or mood changes — or a combination of these.
Of course, addressing the underlying medical disorder is critical. Fortunately, several studies also suggest that we may be able to help our brains function more efficiently and effectively with rather simple lifestyle changes: sleep, exercise and possibly omega-3s.
How does brain clutter affect us?
Are 20-somethings sharper and more quick-witted than those over 60?
German researchers put this stereotype to the test and found that educated older people tend to have a larger mental database of words and phrases to pull from since they have been around longer and have more experience (1). When this is factored into the equation, the difference in terms of age-related cognitive decline becomes negligible.
This study involved data mining and creating simulations. It showed that mental slowing may be at least partially related to the amount of clutter or data that we accumulate over the years. The more you know, the harder it becomes to come up with a simple answer to something.
What if we could reboot our brains, just like we do a computer or smartphone? This may be possible through sleep, exercise and omega-3s.
Why does sleep help?
Why should we dedicate a large chunk of our lives to sleep? Researchers have identified a couple of specific values we receive from sleep: one involves clearing the mind, and another involves productivity.
For the former, a study done in mice shows that sleep may help the brain remove waste, such as those all-too-dangerous beta-amyloid plaques (2). When we have excessive plaque buildup in the brain, it may be a sign of Alzheimer’s. When mice were sleeping, the interstitial space (the space between brain gyri, or structures) increased by as much as 60 percent.
This allowed the lymphatic system, with its cerebrospinal fluid, to clear out plaques, toxins and other waste that had developed during waking hours. With the enlargement of the interstitial space during sleep, waste removal was quicker and more thorough, because cerebrospinal fluid could reach much farther into the spaces. A similar effect was seen when the mice were anesthetized.
In an Australian study, results showed that sleep deprivation may have contributed to an almost one percent decline in gross domestic product (3). Why? When people don’t get enough sleep, they are not as productive. They tend to be more irritable, and their concentration may be affected. While we may be able to turn on and off sleepiness on short-term basis, we can’t do this continually.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4.2 percent of respondents reported having fallen asleep in the prior 30 days behind the wheel of a car during a 2009-2010 study (4). Most commonly, these respondents also reported getting usual sleep of six hours or fewer, snoring, or unintentionally falling asleep during the day. “Drowsy driving” led to 91,000 car crashes in 2017, according to estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (5).
How does exercise help your brain?
One study with rats suggests that a lack of exercise can cause unwanted new brain connections. Rats that were not allowed to exercise were found to have rewired neurons around their medulla, the part of the brain involved in breathing and other involuntary activities. This included more sympathetic (excitatory) stimulus that could lead to increased risk of heart disease (6).
Among the rats allowed to exercise regularly, there was no unusual wiring, and sympathetic stimuli remained constant. This may imply that being sedentary has negative effects on both the brain and the heart. We need human studies to confirm this impact.
Omega-3 fatty acids may affect brain volume
In the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study, results showed that those postmenopausal women who were in the highest quartile of omega-3 fatty acids had significantly greater brain volume and hippocampal volume than those in the lowest quartile (7). The hippocampus is involved in memory and cognitive function.
Specifically, the researchers looked at the levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in red blood cell membranes. The source of the omega-3 fatty acids could have been either from fish or from supplementation.
It’s never too late to improve brain function. Although we have a lot to learn about the functioning of the brain, we know that there are relatively simple ways we can positively influence it.
Dr. David Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, visit www.medicalcompassmd.com or consult your personal physician.
For years, chefs, critics, and food writers have been telling us that red wines need to be paired with red meats and white wines with white meats or fish. This is what I call “The One Size Fits All,” concept and doesn’t take into consideration the multitude of recipes that fall “outside the box” and don’t adhere to the old “red with red wine and white with white” rules.
Some classic recipes that include fish cooked or served in a red sauce are spaghetti with red clam sauce, bouillabaisse (and other fish stews), baccalà (dried cod) in a rich tomato sauce, and lobster fra diavolo in a spicy tomato sauce. Besides these, there are hundreds of recipes for fish cooked in a red sauce and many are great paired with red wine.
Often, it is not the type of fish that determines which wine to drink, but the type of sauce, and the herbs and spices that have been used in the dish’s preparation. Fish can be poached, boiled, broiled, grilled, blackened, crusted, and so forth. It’s all about the texture of the fish after cooking. A poached fish is a simple dish that is silky tasting but lacks texture. The same fish blackened gives it a heartier texture that can stand up to a light-bodied, dry red wine.
Pixabay photo
A young, full-bodied, oaky, and tannic Cabernet Sauvignon pairs well with beef. Yet, paired with fatty, oily, or smoked seafood, the tannins in the wine react with fish oils producing a fishy, metallic, tinny taste, and aftertaste. It would be better to serve a young, fruity, light-bodied, higher-acid, dry red wine that is low in tannin.
Some red wines that pair with fish are Pinot Noir, Barbera, Bardolino, Gamay (Beaujolais), Grignolino, Carignan, Montepulciano, and Sangiovese. These reds are also terrific with fleshier fish, such as tuna, shark, swordfish, and especially salmon. In addition, because they are in higher in acidity, oily fish like sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and bluefish also pair well with these wines. The acid helps balance the oils in the fish, similar to why we squeeze lemon onto fish.
Besides red wines, dry, crisp rosé wines like the wines from Provence and Tavel, France, and others made from Cinsaut, Grenache, Sangiovese, and Tempranillo grapes are great with shellfish (clams, oysters, mussels), scallops, shrimp, crab, and lobster. They are also pair well with a chilled shrimp cocktail sauce or mignonette served over oysters.
Don’t always follow the rules; create your own!
Bob Lipinski is the author of 10 books, including “101: Everything You Need To Know About Whiskey” and “Italian Wine & Cheese Made Simple” (available on Amazon.com). He consults and conducts training seminars on Wine, Spirits, and Food and is available for speaking engagements. He can be reached at www.boblipinski.com OR [email protected].
There has been a lot of media attention about outbreaks of the canine influenza virus (CIV), but very little known about how to predict it’s spread.
Dr. J. Scott Weese of the University of Guelph, Ontario hopes to put an end to that. CIV strain H2N8 was first reported in racing greyhounds in Florida in 2004. Milder cases only cause coughing and transient fever. However, more severe cases can lead to severe pneumonia. Approximately 2% of cases are fatal. Fatalities are usually limited to older dogs or dogs with preexisting health conditions.
In April, 2015, an outbreak of the CIV occurred in the Chicago area that affected more than 1,000 dogs and led to eight deaths. Another outbreak shortly after the Chicago incident occurred in the Atlanta area affecting approximately 80 dogs (no deaths).
In December 2015, another outbreak occurred in the Seattle area affecting approximately 80 dogs (again, no deaths). Interestingly, none of the cases in 2015 were caused by the CIV H3N8 strain, but rather an H3N2 strain. The H3N2 strain was previously only seen in Asia (first diagnosed in 2006-2007). It is believed that this Asian strain gained entrance to the United States through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport inside a dog from Korea.
Fast forward to today and Dr. Weese: between August of 2022 and January of 2023, 200 veterinarians reported cases in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
What Dr. Weese has concluded from the initial information is that CIV differs from human influenza virus in one distinct way. Where the human influenza virus is seasonal based on changes in behavior (people spending more time indoors in closer proximity to each other). CIV spread is more sporadic and year-round.
CIV is passed from dog to dog via aerosolized respiratory secretions from coughing, barking, sneezing, contaminated objects (food and water bowls, kennel surfaces) and people moving between infected and uninfected dogs. Dogs that stay at kennels, groomers, doggy day care, parks etc. are more at risk. This also explains why CIV outbreaks are sporadic and occur year-round.
Vaccines for both known strains (H3N8 and H3N2) are available for dogs at this time. The goal of the vaccine is to expose the host (in this case dogs) to a weakened or inactivated form of the virus and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against it. This will prevent severe forms of the disease but will not prevent infection, nor prevent shedding of the virus.
We hope that as Dr. Weese gets more data a better map of the spread of this disease. Until that time please consult with your veterinarian as to whether your dog is at risk for the CIV virus (H3N8 or H3N2 strain) and whether a vaccine is warranted.
Dr. Kearns practices veterinary medicine from his Port Jefferson office and is pictured with his son Matthew and his dog Jasmine.
When they can’t stand the heat, bay scallops can’t get out of the proverbial kitchen.
A key commercial shellfish with landings data putting them in the top five fisheries in New York, particularly in the Peconic Bay, bay scallops populations have declined precipitously during a combination of warmer waters and low oxygen.
In a study published in the journal Global Change Biology, Christopher Gobler, Stony Brook University Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation and Stephen Tomasetti, a former Stony Brook graduate student, along with several other researchers, showed through lab and field experiments as well as remote sensing and long-term monitoring data analysis how these environmental changes threaten the survival of bay scallops.
Stephen Tomasetti. Photo by Nancy L. Ford/ Hamilton College
Bay scallops are “quite sensitive to different stressors in the environment,” said Tomasetti, who completed his PhD last spring and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Of the regional shellfish, bay scallops are the most sensitive to environmental stress.
Indeed, since 2019, bay scallops have declined by between 95 and 99 percent amid overall warming temperatures and extended heat waves. These declines have led to the declaration of a federal fishery disaster in the Empire State.
Tomasetti used satellite data to characterize daily summer temperatures from 2003 to 2020, which showed significant warming across most of the bay scallop range from New York to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He monitored four sites with sensors in the water in addition to satellite data during a field deployment with scallops.
At the warmest site, which was in Flanders Bay, New York, the temperature was above the 90th percentile of its long term average during an eight-day period that overlapped with the scallop deployment. The bay scallops in Flanders Bay were “all dead by the end of the heat wave event,” Tomasetti said.
At the same time, low levels of oxygen hurt the bay scallops which, like numerous other shellfish, feed on phytoplankton. Oxygen levels are declining in some of these bays as nitrogen from fertilizers and septic systems enter these waterways. High nitrogen levels encourage the growth of algae. When the algae die, they decay, which uses up oxygen and releases carbon dioxide into the water.
Field and lab studies
In the field, Tomasetti measured the heartbeat of bay scallops in East Harbor, Massachusetts by putting optical infrared sensors on them that took heartbeat readings every 15 minutes for a month.
Stephen Tomasetti conducts field work in East Harbor during the summer of 2020.
When the average daily temperature increased, their average heart rate climbed, which the scientists used as a proxy for their respiration rate. A higher respiration rate meant that the scallop was expending energy more rapidly, potentially leading to reductions of energy reserves.
Additionally, Tomasetti measured how quickly the scallops fed on algae in the lab under warm temperatures and low oxygen.These conditions caused the scallops to stop feeding or to feed slowly. Tomasetti interpreted this as a sign that they were waiting out the stress.
In the lab, bay scallops in the same conditions as the bays from Long Island to Massachusetts had the same reactions.
While a collection of fish and invertebrates feed on bay scallops, the effect of their die off on the food web wasn’t likely severe.
“I think there are other prey items that are likely redundant with scallops that cushion the impact,” Gobler explained in an email.
Solutions
Stephen Tomasetti with his wife Kate Rubenstein in East Harbor during the summer of 2020.
As for solutions, global warming, while an important effort for countries across the planet, requires coordination, cooperation and compliance to reduce greenhouse gases and lower the world’s carbon footprint.
On a more local and immediate scale, people on Long Island can help with the health of the local ecosystem and the shellfish population by reducing and controlling the chemicals that run off into local waters.
Waste management practices that limit nutrients are “super helpful,” Tomasetti said. “Supporting restoration (like the clam sanctuaries across Long Island that are increasing the filtration capacities of bays) is good.”
Gobler is encouraged by county, state and federal official responses to problems such as the decline in bay scallops, including the declaration of a federal disaster.
Long Island experience
A graduate student at Stony Brook for five years, Tomasetti was pleasantly surprised with the environment.
He had lived in New York City, where he taught high school biology for five years, before starting his PhD.
His perception was that Long Island was “a giant suburb” of New York. That perspective changed when he moved to Riverhead and enjoyed the pine forest, among other natural resources.
He and his wife Kate Rubenstein, whom he met while teaching, enjoyed sitting in their backyard and watching wild turkeys walking through their property, while deer grazed on their plant life.
Initially interested in literature at the University of Central Florida, Tomasetti took a biology course that was a prerequisite for another class he wanted to take. After completing these two biology classes, he changed his college and career plans.
Teaching high school brought him into contact with researchers, where he saw science in action and decided to contribute to the field.
At Hamilton College, Tomasetti has started teaching and is putting together his research plan, which will likely involve examining trends in water quality and temperature. He will move to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, MD this fall, where he will be an assistant professor in coastal environmental science.
As for his work with bay scallops and other shellfish on Long Island, Tomasetti looked at the dynamics of coastal systems and impacts of extreme events on economically important shellfish in the area.
Tomasetti is not just a scientist; he is also a consumer of shellfish.His favorite is sea scallops, which he eats a host of ways, although he’s particularly fond of the pan seared option.
Striped Skunk. Photo by Dan Dzuirisn/Wikimedia Commons
By John L. Turner
John Turner
Although the hike was twenty-four years ago, I remember the experience as if it had happened last week.
I was heading west along an old asphalt road, broken up by time and weather and flanked on both sides by an interwovenfabric of dwarf pines and scrub oaks, vegetation typical to the globally rare Dwarf Pine Plains of Westhampton. Ahead and to my left I suddenly noticed several birds making a commotion. A pair of brown thrashers and a rufous-sided towhee were flitting up and down around a large clump of scrub oak, a clear signal that something had them agitated.My interest piqued, I went to investigate.
Coming around a rounded clump of scrub oak I saw the target of their concern — a striped skunk ten to twelve feet away, actively feeding on what I believe was a hatch of flying termites which formed a gauzy cloud above the skunk. (Several years earlier an intense wildfire roared through this area killing even the fire resistant scrub oaks — I surmised the termites were feeding on the decaying wood of the large, somewhat exposed rootstocks.)
So excited was I by this first live sighting of a skunk on Long Island that I lost my common sense and got closer than I should have, trying to get a better idea of what it was eating. That I crossed the line became immediately clear when the skunk turned its back to me and stomped the ground with its front feet — a telltale sign a skunk is agitated and will likely spray. Obviously not wishing for this odoriferous outcome, I quickly (and comically) turned around and ran thirty or more feet, leaping over and around blueberry and huckleberry bushes and fallen logs to gain a safe distance, desperately hoping to avoid getting sprayed as I dashed away.My hope became reality as the skunk didn’t spray.
Several years later, this time in the southeast sector of the Dwarf Pine Plains, I had my second sighting of a skunk. It was early evening and I was with a friend birding a bit before nightfall at which time we were going to listen for whip-poor-wills.We headed east on a wide sandy trail when a striped skunk suddenly broke out of the dwarf pinesand started to waddle toward us. It came within 25-30 feet of us before nonchalantly breaking back into the thicket.
The most recent (and shortest) sighting of a skunk occurred in October of 2021.Driving west on Sound Avenue around dusk an animal ambled across the road about a mile west of Briermere Farms (famous for its pies). This sighting led me to think about the first several experiences I had with striped skunks on Long Island — individuals that unlike the experience above, unfortunately all involved roadkills and all in the Pine Barrens — along County Routes 111 in Manorville, 51 in western Southampton, and 94 (Nugent Drive) in Calverton.
All of the sightings were exciting to me as they indicated that this distinctive mammal was still part of Long Island’s fauna and that it hadn’t disappeared. For several decades before naturalists weren’t sure of its status here as there were few if any reports of skunk sightings. Some feared it had been extirpated from Long Island.
The striped skunk is a striking and beautiful animal, reminiscent of a negative photo image involving the stark contrast of black and white.It has a black face with a white line running down the nose between the eyes.The top of the head is white as if wearing a cap of cotton or snow with the white continuing down the back in two slightly separated racing stripes which sandwich a black back and rump. The bottom of the animal including its legs and feet is black. The rather fluffy tail is a mixture of black and white hairs. All in all, it is a most distinctive mammal!
Three other skunk species occur in the United States — the spotted skunk, hog-nosed skunk, and hooded skunk. These are primarily western species.Skunks were long groupedwith the “mustelid” mammals,animals such as otters, badgers and weasels; they have since been broken out of this group and are now in their own mammalian family.
Paul F. Connor, in his definitive 1971 New York State Museum publication “The Mammals of Long Island, New York,” had much to say about the species. He notes the skunk was once common on Long Island but became much less so in the twentieth century.He ascribes two reasons for its decline. One is as roadkill victims in the ever increasing network of roads constructed on Long Island over the years (the home range of male skunks involves many hundreds of acres over which they wander in their search for food and mates) ensuring in most places here they will intersect a road.The second reason for decline was due to poisoning from the widespread use on eastern Long Island of Paris Green, an arsenic based pesticide used to control the Colorado Potato beetle which skunks apparently ate with devastating results.(Skunks readily eat insects — remember the episode above where I almost got sprayed?).
During Connor’s survey he found only one skunk — in 1961, a road-killed animal near Sag Harbor, although he did find ample signs of skunk in the form of droppings, tracks, its tell-tale odor, even finding a den — in the pine barrens of Manorville. Connor notes several reports by other observers who saw skunks in the early 1960s in Montauk, Calverton, Napeague (Hither Hills State Park), and Yaphank, even as far west as the North Hills region of northwestern Nassau County.
Connor mentions Daniel Denton’s earlier account (1670) of striped skunks on Long Island, stating they were once common and, surprisingly, were widely eaten by Indigenous people.The famous naturalist Roy Latham backs this up by stating, in personal communication, to Connor: “the skunk was one of the more common mammals discovered in his Indian archeological excavations on eastern Long Island, found at most sites.”
Remarkably, beaver and wolves, species long ago eradicated from Long Island, were also found at these sites. Latham also reported to Connor observing a pair of albino skunks in Montauk, in June of 1928.
It is clear the striped skunk is hanging on here and, in fact, appears to be slowly rebounding. According to a Dec. 12, 2022, Newsday article written by Joan Gralla, recent skunk sightings have occurred in Smithtown, Commack, and Northport and a colleague, Dave Taft, recently mentioned to me in a phone conversation of a road-kill skunk he saw on the shoulder of the Cross Island Expressway in Queens. Tim Green, a manager in the Environmental Protection Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory, reports that skunks are “fairly common but low numbers” at the property and recently saw a road-killed skunk on Middle Country Road in Calverton.
The acquisition of so much parkland, and thus wildlife habitat, throughout Long Island — especially the preservation of tens of thousands of contiguous acres of Pine Barrens throughout central Suffolk County — gives reason for optimism that Pepe Le Pew will long remain a distinctive and unique component of Long Island’s fauna.
The Seatuck Environmental Association is interested in better understanding the presence and distribution of striped skunk and other mammals native to Long Island. To this end, Seatuck has launched a 2022 version of Paul Connor’s seminal 1971 report through its Long Island Mammal Survey and you can contribute to it as a “Citizen Scientist.”This initiative will involve the use of trail cams to detect mammals and experts will utilize live traps to confirm the presence of small mammal species like flying squirrels, shrews, moles, and mice. If you wish to contribute sightings you can do this through the iNaturalist website.
An informative program entitled “Terrestrial Mammals of Long Island,” given by Mike Bottini as part of Seatuck’s Community Science Webinar series, is available at https://seatuck.org/community-science-webinars/.Mike is a wildlife biologist at Seatuck who you may know through his important work in tracking the recovery of river otters on Long Island (a future “Nature Matters” column!)
I hope you see a skunk during one of your hikes or journeys in the wilds of Long Island. If you do, just remember, unlike me, to keep your distance!
A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
Why should we dedicate a large chunk of our lives to sleep? Researchers have identified a couple of specific values we receive from sleep: one involves clearing the mind, and another involves productivity.
A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
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