SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



583 



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WOLVERINE 



Its weasel kinship is seen in the wolverine track. Occasionally, not always, its fifth toe 

 shows. The track is not plantigrade, and a single track is easily mistaken for that of a wolf. 



pecially on the tail, and this appendage lacks 

 the plumelike appearance observed in other 

 skunks. The nose is prolonged into a distinct 

 "snout," naked on the top and sides and evi- 

 dently used for rooting in the earth after the 

 manner of a pig. In addition, the front feet 

 are armed with long, heavy claws, and the front 

 legs and shoulders are provided with a strong 

 muscular development for digging, as in a bad- 

 ger. This likeness has led to the use in some 

 places of the appropriate name "badger skunk" 

 for these animals. The single white stripe along 

 the back, and including the tail, is a common 

 pattern with these skunks, but this marking is 

 considerably varied, as in the common species. 

 The hog-nosed skunks are the only repre- 

 sentatives of the skunk tribe in South America, 

 where various species occupy a large part of 

 the continent. They appear to form a South 

 American group of mammals which has ex- 

 tended its range northward through Central 



America. Mexico, and across the border of the 

 United States to central Texas, New Mexico, 

 and Arizona. In Mexico they range from sea- 

 level to above lo.ooo feet altitude on the moun- 

 tains of the interior. 



The hair on these skunks is coarse and harsh, 

 lacking the qualities which render the coats of 

 their northern relatives so valuable. Where 

 their range coincides with that of the common 

 skunks, the local distribution of the two is 

 practically the same. They live along the bot- 

 tom-lands of watercourses, where vegetation is 

 abundant and the supply of food most plentiful, 

 or in canyons and on rocky mountain slopes. 



For shelter they dig their own burrows, usually 

 in a bank, or under a rock, or the roots of a 

 tree, but do not hesitate to take possession of 

 the deserted burrows of other animals, or of 

 natural cavities among the_ rocks. Owing to 

 their strictly nocturnal habits, they are much 

 less frequently seen than the common skunks. 



