The skunks do give adequate warning to those that approach too closely. The skunk’s striking bodily design may serve as a tip-off to other animals, but it’s merely a “GOOD EATS” sign for the owl. This creature, not surprisingly, lacks a sense of smell. While desperate carnivores occasionally eat skunks, the main killer (besides automobiles) is the great horned owl. With a well-developed pair of scent glands next to the anus, skunks’ notoriously formidable spraying defense makes them totally unafraid of any animal, and rightfully so. Our local species is the western spotted skunk ( Spilogale gracilis). There are seven species of spotted skunk, with a similar distribution that extends into Central America. The striped skunk is found throughout North America. We have two species of skunk in the Bay Area: the familiar striped skunk (Pepé Le Pew) and the much less common and slightly smaller spotted skunk.
#Skunk predators full#
Their scat is usually dark brown or black, lightweight, and full of insect exoskeletons. They amble along investigating everything in their path and digging little holes as they go. Skunks are extremely adaptable and can live in the suburbs eating back-porch cat food or in the wild eating beetle grubs and yellow jackets. Humans have greatly altered the American landscape in the last 400 years, and our wholesale clearing has benefited some species of skunks. However, the ex spurts (get it?) say washing with a mixture of one quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, one-fourth cup baking soda, and one to two teaspoons of dishwashing soap should do the trick. Another bit of folk wisdom says a tomato juice bath removes the smell. While vomiting you may, however, regret the news that you’ll continue to live. Contrary to popular myth, you will not go permanently blind if it gets in your eyes. I’ll say! But urine is innocuous compared to a skunk’s sticky, yellow, penetrating, highly acidic, and unpleasant emission. Seganku means the fox (or mammal) that urinates. Our name for the much-maligned skunk comes from Algonquian, a widespread language group common throughout New England. Both have potent volatile chemicals that differ but can smell alike to us humans because both contain sulfur compounds. Now that marijuana is legal and much more ubiquitous, I’m never sure whether it’s the car in front of me I’m smelling or a road-killed skunk. A game camera captures a western spotted skunk dancing to warn off predators in Pima County, Arizona.
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