Facts About Skunks
Skunks are mild-tempered, mostly
nocturnal, and will defend themselves only when cornered or attacked. Even when
other animals or people are in close proximity, skunks will ignore the
intruders unless they are disturbed.
Skunks are beneficial to farmers, gardeners, and landowners because they feed on large numbers of agricultural and garden pests. While young skunks are cute and kitten like, they are wild animals and it is illegal to keep them as pets
Two skunk species live in Washington: The striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis,) is the size of a domestic cat, ranging in length from 22 to 32 inches, including its tail. Its fur is jet black except for two prominent white stripes running down its back. The striped skunk occurs throughout most lowland areas in Washington, preferring open fields, pastures, and croplands near brushy fencerows, rock outcroppings, and brushy draws. It is also seen or its musky odor noticed—in some suburban and urban locations, particularly near sources of open water.
The spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), also known as the polecat, ranges in length from 14 to 18 inches, including its tail. Its fur is a black or grayish black, with white stripes on its shoulders and sides, and white spots on its forehead, cheeks, and rump.
The spotted skunk occurs throughout west and southeast Washington. The spotted skunk and striped skunk use similar types of habitat, although the spotted skunk is more likely to be seen in and around forests and woodlands, and is not as tolerant of human activity as the striped skunk.
Facts about Washington Skunks
Food and Feeding Habits
Skunks are beneficial to farmers, gardeners, and landowners because they feed on large numbers of agricultural and garden pests. While young skunks are cute and kitten like, they are wild animals and it is illegal to keep them as pets
Two skunk species live in Washington: The striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis,) is the size of a domestic cat, ranging in length from 22 to 32 inches, including its tail. Its fur is jet black except for two prominent white stripes running down its back. The striped skunk occurs throughout most lowland areas in Washington, preferring open fields, pastures, and croplands near brushy fencerows, rock outcroppings, and brushy draws. It is also seen or its musky odor noticed—in some suburban and urban locations, particularly near sources of open water.
The spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), also known as the polecat, ranges in length from 14 to 18 inches, including its tail. Its fur is a black or grayish black, with white stripes on its shoulders and sides, and white spots on its forehead, cheeks, and rump.
The spotted skunk occurs throughout west and southeast Washington. The spotted skunk and striped skunk use similar types of habitat, although the spotted skunk is more likely to be seen in and around forests and woodlands, and is not as tolerant of human activity as the striped skunk.
Facts about Washington Skunks
Food and Feeding Habits
- Skunks will eat what they can find
or catch. They have large feet, well-developed claws, and digging is their
primary method used to obtain food.
- Some of their favorite foods
include, mice, moles, voles, rats, birds and their eggs, and carcasses also
grasshoppers, wasps, bees, crickets, beetles, and beetle larvae.
- Skunks also eat fruits, nuts, garden
crops, and scavenge on garbage, birdseed, and pet food.
- Skunks will roll caterpillars on the
ground to remove the hairs before eating them. They will also roll beetles that
emit a defensive scent, causing the beetle to deplete its scent before they eat
it.
Den Sites
- Skunks use underground dens
year-round for daytime resting, hiding, birthing and rearing young.
- Dens are located under wood and rock
piles, buildings, porches, and concrete slabs also in rock crevices, culverts,
drainpipes, and in standing or fallen hollow trees.
- Skunks may dig their own dens, but
more often use the deserted burrows of other animals, such as ground squirrels
and marmots.
- Dens are either permanent, or used
alternately with other dens.
- Spotted skunks are excellent
climbers and may use an attic or a hayloft as a den.
- Skunks do not hibernate; instead,
they lower their body temperature and stay inside their dens during extreme
cold, plugging the entrance with leaves and grass to insulate them from the
cold.
- Female skunks sometimes share
communal dens.
Reproduction
- Striped skunks breed from February
through March. Spotted skunks breed from September through October and
experience delayed implantation; the fertilized egg does not attach to the
uterine wall for a period of time after breeding.
- In late April and May, females of
both species give birth to four to five young in an underground nest lined with
dried grass and other vegetation.
- At around 60 days of age, the mother
leads her young out at dusk to forage and hunt. At three months old the skunks
are almost full-grown and completely independent.
- Striped skunk families often remain
together throughout the winter.
Mortality and Longevity
- Skunks have few predators hungry
coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and cougars, also large owls (which have little sense
of smell). Domestic dogs will also kill skunks.
- Skunks also die as a result of road
kills, trapping, shooting, and killing by farm chemicals and machinery.
Striped skunks live three to four years in the wild; spotted skunks live half that long..
This information was provide by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Russell Link, and Michael Holmquist
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