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Striped Skunk photographed at Big Bend National Park, Basin Junction, Texas
Photograph by diotime1. Some rights reserved. |
Striped Skunk, Middletown, Rhode Island
Photograph by Tom McCarthy (cruadinx). Some rights reserved. |
Striped Skunk picking up the left overs under a bird feeder. Val Verde County, Texas.
Photograph by Charles & Clint. Some rights reserved. |
These baby skunks were found near a warehouse of a cake company in an Industrial Park in Hermosillo in the Sate of Sonant, Mexico. They were taken to a local Environmental Centre. Young skunks like these do not emit the strong odor that characterizes the species.
Photograph by Oswaldo. Some rights reserved. |
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STRIPED SKUNK FACTS
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Description
Striped skunks have black fur with a white stripe that starts on the head and forks into two stripes down the sides of the back. The stripes usually join again near the base of the tail. There is also a stripe from the snout to the forehead. The tail is sometimes striped but is usually just a mixture of black and white hairs. It has a small head and small ears with short legs and long busy tail. Skunks can spray a foul-smelling fluid from two glands near the base of its tail. This liquid is oily and difficult to remove and is very painful if sprayed in the eyes.
Size
About the size of a domestic cat. Length 58cm - 80cm including tail. Tail length 17cm - 30cm.
Environment
open woodland, grasslands, farm clearings
Food
mostly insects, also small mammals, birds eggs, carrion, fruit, grass, leaves.
Breeding
Five or six kittens are born after a gestation period of 60 - 77 days. At birth they are very immature and blind, deaf. They are weaned after about 6 weeks. The young follow the mother around for the first year. Skunk kittens can spray when they are only eight days old
Range
central Canada, United States, northern Mexico
Classification
| Class: | Mammalia | | Order: | Carnivora | | Family: | Mephitidae | | Genus: | Mephitis | | Species: | mephitis | | Common Name: | Striped Skunk |
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