Mammals
Striped Skunk
Mephitis mephitis · also called skunk, polecat
The striped skunk moves through the world with the confidence of an animal that knows nothing wants to bother it. Its defence is famous, effective, and — because the black-and-white coat advertises it so clearly — rarely needed.
Overview
Mephitis mephitis is the common skunk of North America, at home in woods, farmland, and suburbs. It is a stout, short-legged omnivore, black with a bold white stripe, and it eats insects, grubs, small animals, eggs, fruit, and garbage, digging up wasp and bee nests whole.
The spray
From glands beside the anus it fires an oily, aimable musk up to about 3 m. The smell comes from thiols — sulfur compounds humans detect at parts per billion — and it carries over a kilometre and clings for days.
Mostly a bluff
The skunk holds only five or six sprays and takes over a week to reload, so it warns first: foot-stamping, hissing, tail up. The warning coat means most predators, having been sprayed once, never test it again. The exception is the great horned owl, which hunts silently and cannot smell.
Winter and disease
It is not a true hibernator, denning communally and emerging on mild nights. It is also a main wildlife reservoir of rabies in North America — a reason to avoid any skunk active in daylight.
Status
Least Concern and common, its numbers swinging with disease outbreaks and heavy road mortality.
Striped Skunk: common questions
How does skunk spray work, and why does it smell so bad?
The spray is an oily secretion from a pair of glands flanking the anus, released through small nipple-like ducts that the skunk can aim, either as a targeted stream at close range or as a cloud when a threat is farther off. Its stench comes from a group of sulfur-containing compounds called thiols, the same chemical family as the smell of rotten eggs and the odorant added to natural gas so leaks can be detected. Human noses are extraordinarily sensitive to thiols, picking them up at a few parts per billion, and the oily carrier makes the compounds stick to fur, skin, and fabric and release slowly, which is why the smell lingers for days and seems to come back when the material gets wet.
What actually gets rid of skunk smell?
Not tomato juice, which only masks it and overwhelms your nose so the skunk smell seems to fade. The compounds have to be chemically changed. The standard remedy, worked out by a chemist named Paul Krebaum in 1993, is a fresh mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and a little liquid dish soap, worked into the fur or skin and then rinsed off; the peroxide oxidises the thiols into odourless compounds and the soap breaks up the oil. It must be mixed just before use and never stored in a sealed container, because it produces gas. Commercial skunk-odour products use the same oxidising principle.
Will a skunk chase me, and are they dangerous?
A skunk will not chase you. It is a slow, mild-mannered animal whose entire strategy is to warn you off and then, only if that fails, to spray, and even a sprayed person is not harmed beyond the smell, temporary stinging if it hits the eyes, and nausea. The real danger from skunks is rabies, since they are a significant carrier in North America; a skunk that is out in daylight, unafraid of people, staggering, or aggressive should be given a wide berth and reported. Skunks can also carry roundworm and other parasites, so their droppings and dens should not be handled.
Are skunks related to weasels?
They used to be classified with the weasels, otters, and badgers in the family Mustelidae, and they do share a general body plan and the anal scent glands that all those animals have, though the skunk's are exceptionally developed. Genetic work in the 1990s showed that skunks are actually distinct enough to form their own family, the Mephitidae, along with the stink badgers of Southeast Asia. Their closest relatives are still the broad group that includes weasels, raccoons, and red pandas, but a skunk is not a weasel.