Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
about twenty-five days after birth. By the time they're out and about with their mother, however, they
should be considered armed and dangerous!
Striped skunks are widespread and common throughout the lower forty-eight states, a little of north-
ern Mexico, and much of Canada. With a maximum weight of about fourteen pounds, and an average
closer to eight or ten, they're about the size of a house cat. Typically, the striped skunk is black, with a
white stripe on the head that divides into two broad stripes along the back; these often rejoin to form a
white stripe on the tail, as well. Although this is the commonest pattern, skunk markings often deviate
from this considerably.
Skunks are primarily nocturnal, although they can often be seen at dusk and occasionally in the day-
time. They are truly omnivorous and will eat almost anything remotely edible, as many homeowners
can attest after finding a skunk in the garbage can, or their garbage strewn about indiscriminately.
Absent food inadvertently supplied by humans, skunks eat earthworms and grubs, nuts and berries,
birds' eggs, carrion, small rodents, ears of corn low enough for them to reach, and many other things.
We could always tell when skunks were roaming our pasture at night because the older, drier cow drop-
pings (or, if you prefer, cow flops, pasture patties, or meadow muffins) had been overturned during the
skunk's search for the abundant earthworms and insects beneath.
The striped skunk is active throughout the winter in the South, but is a semi-hibernator in the North.
There it sometimes dens communally, presumably for warmth. Skunks den under buildings, beneath
stumps, and often in the abandoned burrows of animals such as woodchucks.
Although skunks in the North will occasionally emerge from their dens on particularly warm winter
days, they mostly remain inactive until about mid-February. Then the mating call stirs within, and skunk
tracks in the snow and dead skunks along the roadside can be seen with increasing frequency, as skunks
travel about looking for a member of the opposite sex. The mating period continues until about the end
of March.
A fairly brief period of delayed implantation follows early breedings, though not the later ones, and
the young are born in May. Blind at birth, baby skunks are usually about two months old (remember
that they can spray after about twenty-five days) before they leave the den to accompany their mother
on her nightly forays.
The spotted skunk
(Spilogale putorius)
is our other common skunk. Absent from the East Coast, the
Northeast, and parts of the Great Lakes states, this skunk otherwise inhabits Mexico and most of the
remaining lower forty-eight states. Far smaller than its striped relative, the spotted skunk ranges from
less than a pound to slightly over two pounds. A handsome little animal, it's really more striped than
spotted; the markings on its black coat consist mainly of a series of broken horizontal and vertical white
stripes on its back and sides.
Most of what has been said about the striped skunk applies to the spotted skunk as well. However,
there are three differences worth noting. First, the spotted skunk has the peculiar method of standing
