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| Skunks | ||||||||||
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| Striped Skunk
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Mephitis |
The skunks or Mephitidae are a family of medium-sized mammals, typically black-and-white-furred, belonging to the order Carnivora. They are found throughout both North and South America, being absent only from the far north of Canada.
Skunk species vary in size from about 40 to almost 70 centimetres, and in weight from about half a kilogram (the Spotted Skunks, genus Spilogale) up to as much as 6 kilograms (the well-known claws for digging.
Although the most common coloration for skunks is black and white, some skunks are brown or grey in color, and a few are cream-colored. All skunks are striped, however, even from birth. They may have a single thick stripe across back and tail, two thinner stripes, or a series of white spots and broken stripes (in the case of the spotted skunk). Some also have stripes on their legs.
Skunks are nocturnal carnivores: they eat a great many insects and their larvae, especially by digging for them, and they are keen mousers. Frogs, salamanders, bird eggs, snakes, and carrion are also important. In settled areas, human garbage is sought.
Skunks are solitary animals when not breeding, but may gather together to keep warm in communal dens in the coldest part of their range. During the day they shelter in burrows that they dig with their powerful front claws, or in other man-made or natural hollows as the opportunity arises. Both sexes occupy overlapping home ranges through the greater part of the year; typically 2 to 4 km2 for females, up to 20 km2 for males.
Breeding usually takes place in early spring. Females excavate a den ready for between one and four young to be born in May. The male plays no part in raising the young and may even kill them. A common scene in late spring and summer is a mother skunk followed by line of her kits. By late July or August the young disperse. When the young skunks meet again, they raise their tails vertically. After a little posturing they start to rub against each other, often rolling around in what appears to be an embrace. Older skunks seem less friendly to the young kits.
Although they have excellent senses of smell and hearing—vital attributes in a nocturnal carnivore—they have poor vision. They cannot see objects more than about 3 metres away with any clarity, which makes them very vulnerable to road traffic. Roughly half of all skunk deaths are caused by humans, as roadkill, or as a result of shooting and poisoning. They are short-lived animals: fewer than 10% survive for longer than three years.
The best-known and most distinctive feature of the skunks is the great development of their scent glands, which they use as defensive weapons. They have two glands, on either side of the anus, that produce a mixture of sulphur-containing chemicals (methyl and butyl mercaptans) that has a highly offensive smell. Muscles located next to the scent glands allow them to shoot out the liquid through nipples. The nipples are hidden when the tail is down and exposed when the tail is raised. The skunk has voluntary control over these scent glands and can aim behind, to either side, or to the front by changing the direction of aim of the nipples. The spray can reach to a distance of about 2 metres with good accuracy. The smell aside, it can cause irritation and even temporary blindness, and is sufficiently powerful to be detected by even an insensitive human nose anywhere up to a kilometre downwind. Their chemical defence, though unusual, is effective, as illustrated by this extract from Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle:
We saw also a couple of Zorillos, or skunks,--odious animals, which are far from uncommon. In general appearance the Zorillo resembles a polecat, but it is rather larger, and much thicker in proportion. Conscious of its power, it roams by day about the open plain, and fears neither dog nor man. If a dog is urged to the attack, its courage is instantly checked by a few drops of the fetid oil, which brings on violent sickness and running at the nose. Whatever is once polluted by it, is for ever useless. Azara says the smell can be perceived at a league distant; more than once, when entering the harbour of Monte Video, the wind being off shore, we have perceived the odour on board the "Beagle." Certain it is, that every animal most willingly makes room for the Zorillo.
Because skunks have only enough scent for 5 or 6 "reloads" —about 1 tablespoon (15 grams)—and take a couple of days to refill their scent glands, they are reluctant to expend their "ammunition". This is why skunks have such bold black and white colouring: to ensure they are as visible and as memorable as possible. Where practical, it is to a skunk's advantage to simply warn a threatening creature off without expending scent: the black and white warning colour aside, threatened skunks will go through an elaborate routine of hisses and foot stamping and tail-high threat postures before expelling a shower of scent. Interestingly, skunks will not spray other skunks (with the exception of males in the mating season); though they fight over den space in autumn, they do so with tooth and claw.
The musk-spraying ability of the skunk has not escaped the attention of biologists: the name of the most common species, Mephitis mephitis, means "stench stench", and Spilogale putorius means "stinking spotted weasel". The word skunk is a corruption of a Native American name for them, segongw.
Predators like owls, foxes and badgers rarely kill them. The exception is the Great Horned Owl, the skunks' only serious predator.
Skunks are closely related to the weasel group and although they are now generally classfied as a separate family within the same order, some taxonomists still place them as a subfamily of the Mustelidae.
Domesticated skunks can legally be kept as pets in certain U.S. states. When the skunk is kept as a pet, the scent gland is removed. Some skunks were reported by European settlers in America as being kept as pets by certain Native Americans. It is said that pilgrims used to keep skunks as pets.
The following Skunk Smell Remover Formula is effective in removing skunk smell from sprayed victims.
Directions: Mix together at time of usage, and apply foaming mixture to affected areas.
How it works: The oxygen molecules emitted by the hydrogen peroxide and baking soda reaction deactivates the smell molecules by binding to them and rendering them inert.
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