Observations on the Habits of the Striped Skunk (Mephitis mesomelas varians)

Ecological Studies on the Vertebrate Fauna of a 500‐Acre Farm in Kalamazoo County, Michigan

“…If the disproportionately large number of males taken in the trapping season in Texas as shown by Cuyler ( 1924), in New York as shown by Hamilton ( 1937a), and in Michigan as shown by the present work, holds good for Missouri, the sex ratio in the spring would not be 0.5, as assumed by Bennitt and Nagel. Hence if fewer males were present, and the animals are polygamous, the spring breeding population would be lower than that computed by these authors.…”

“…However, as the species is probably polygamous and as ordinary trapping in the winter when most females are holed up takes many more males than females (Cuyler, 1924), 12 the annual fur crop probably does not inhibit the reproductive potentialities of the population so much as might be expected. What the actual annual yield of fur would be, if the optimum number of animals were harvested, is not indicated.…”

Ecological aspects of winter dormancy in the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis)

“…Other investigators have also found free-ranging skunks to be primarily inactive in northern winters (Hamilton 1937;Selko 1938;Verts 1967;Sunquist 1974). In contrast to the hiemal inactivity of northern skunks, free-ranging skunks in the southern portions of the species' range remain active for the entire year (Cuyler 1924;Stout and Sonenshine 1974). The sporadic resumption of surface activity between 1 March and 10 April in the present study was positively correlated with ambient temperature (Table 1).…”

A Group Defense Incident Involving Juvenile Striped Skunks, <em>Mephitis mephitis</em>

“…From a young age, Striped Skunks rely on a strong chemical defense (Cuyler 1924) and, when threatened, are capable of scenting-expelling a noxious, strong-smelling musk-from anal glands located under the tail. A direct hit by a stream of musk to the eyes or mouth of a predator may cause vomiting or temporary blindness (Cuyler 1924). Each skunk has a limited volume of musk to devote to these scenting incidents before temporarily exhausting its supply (Verts 1967).…”

“…Striped Skunks also display a wide array of defensive behavioral traits, such as abruptly changing direction (Larivière and Messier 1996), stomping their front feet, hissing, clacking their teeth, raising their tails in the direction of the predator, scenting, charging, fleeing, performing head stands with the anal area aimed at the predator, and hiding (Cuyler 1924;Laun 1962;Verts 1967;Walton and Larivière 1994;Larivière and Messier 1996). Until now, these defensive behavioral traits have been reported only for solitary individual Striped Skunks.…”