Skunks are moderately small mammals with black-and-white fur belonging to the family Mephitidae and the order Carnivora. There are 11 species of skunks, which are divided into four genera: Mephitis (hooded and striped skunks, two species), Spilogale (spotted skunks, two species), Mydaus (stink badgers, two species), and Conepatus (hog-nosed skunks, five species). The two skunk species in the Mydaus genus inhabit Indonesia and the Philippines; all other skunks inhabit the Americas from Canada to central South America.
Skunks are sometimes called polecats because of their visual similarity to the European polecat (Mustela putorius), a member of the Mustelidae family. Skunks are closely related to the weasel group and although they are now generally classified as a separate family within the same order, some taxonomists still place them as a subfamily of the Mustelidae. Skunk species vary in size from about 15.6 in. (40 cm) to 27.3 in. (70 cm) and in weight from about 1.1 lbs. (0.5 kg) (the spotted skunks) to 9.92 lbs. They have a moderately elongated body with reasonably short, well-muscled legs, and long front claws for digging.
Although the most common fur color is black and white, some skunks are brown or gray, 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.
The best known and most distinctive feature of the skunks is the great development of their scent glands, which they can use as a defensive weapon. They have two glands, on either side of the anus, that produce a mixture of sulfur-containing chemicals (methyl and butyl thiols) that has a highly offensive smell. Muscles located next to the scent glands allow them to spray with high accuracy as far as 2 to 3 metres (7 to 10 ft). The smell aside, the spray can cause irritation and even temporary blindness, and is sufficiently powerful to be detected by even an insensitive human nose anywhere up to a mile downwind.
Because skunks have only enough scent for 5 or 6 "reloads" -about 15 cc's -and take around 10 days to refill their scent glands, they are reluctant to expend their "ammunition". This is presumably 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 an Abenaki name for them, segongw or segonku, which means "one who squirts" in the Algonquian dialect. Most predatory animals of the Americas, such as wolves, foxes and badgers, seldom attack skunks - presumably out of fear of being sprayed. The exception is the great horned owl, the animal's only serious predator (which, being a bird, has a poor-to-nonexistent sense of smell).
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.
Unlike the fictional "Flower" in the movie Bambi, real skunks do not hibernate in the winter. However they do remain generally inactive and feed rarely. They often over winter in a huddle of one male and multiple (as many as twelve) females. The same winter den will be repeatedly re-used.
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 meters away with any clarity, which makes them very vulnerable to road traffic. Roughly half of all skunk deaths are caused by humans, as road kill, or as a result of shooting and poisoning. They are short-lived animals: fewer than 10% survive for longer than three years.
Domesticated skunks can legally be kept as pets in certain U.S. states. Mephitis mephitis, the striped skunk species, is the most social skunk and the one most commonly domesticated. 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. The Pilgrims are said to have kept skunks as pets.
Skunks are moderately small mammals with black-and-white fur belonging to the family Mephitidae and the order Carnivora. There are 11 species of skunks, which are divided into four genera: Mephitis (hooded and striped skunks, two species), Spilogale (spotted skunks, two species), Mydaus (stink badgers, two species), and Conepatus (hog-nosed skunks, five species). The two skunk species in the Mydaus genus inhabit Indonesia and the Philippines; all other skunks inhabit the Americas from Canada to central South America.
