132 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



The common skunk, with its many geographic forms, 

 ranges over the greater part of the North American conti- 

 nent from Hudson Bay, Canada, to Guatemala. It is mainly 

 nocturnal, spending the daylight hours sleeping in its den. 

 Moonlight nights are favored for long strolls whether in 

 search of food or merely in just perambulating around. In 

 the matter of food, the skunk is omnivorous — that is, its 

 food is a little of everything. It eats a very large quantity 

 of insects, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, wasps, cicades, 

 June bugs, and grubs and larvae of many kinds. Rodents 

 injurious to mian find an acceptable place on its bill of fare, 

 but it also preys on the eggs of ground-nesting birds, as 

 well as on the birds themselves. Lizards, turtle eggs, frogs, 

 fish, and small fruits are also devoured. Sometimes chicken 

 houses are visited with resultant damage to the fowl. 



The female skunk produces a single litter during spring, 

 early in April in Louisiana as a rule, and when the young 

 are old enough to leave the den, which is usually a hollow 

 log or subterranean burrow dug by the parents, the young 

 follow the mother in single file on her nightly forays for 

 food, the youngest keeping close to one another like ele- 

 phants in a circus parade. The family keeps united through 

 the winter months, until the mating season arrives, and 

 then they pair off. The period of gestation is almost nine 

 weeks, 60 to 62 days. 



Of the animals valuable for their fur the skunk is im- 

 portant in Louisiana raw pelt trade, although this state does 

 not produce as many skins as the more northern and east- 

 ern commonwealths. Our crop of 15,000 to 20,000 seems 

 insignificant when compared to Pennsylvania's annual pro- 

 duction of 117,000 pelts. 



The common skunk is found and trapped in every parish 

 of the state, Terrebonne, St. Mary, Lafourche, Livingston, 

 Cameron, Caddo, Claiborne, Plaquemines, Richland, Pointe 

 Coupee, Natchitoches, Rapides, Tangipahoa and Vermilion 

 bcincr the leaders in the order named. 



The price paid for skunk averages $1.00 per pelt, the 

 prevailing low price being due to the failure of Germany 

 to absorb as large a number of skins as has been taken by 



