SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



477 



THE COMMON SKUNK (Mephitis 

 mephitis and its relatives) 



(For illustration, see page 456) 



Probably no American mammal is more gen- 

 erally known and less popular than the skunk. 

 This current odium is due wholly to its posses- 

 sion of a scent sac of malodorous fluid, which 

 it distributes with prompt accuracy when an- 

 noyed. The possession of this method of de- 

 fense is common to all skunks. The term "pole- 

 cat," sometimes given to all kinds of skunks, is 

 the misuse of a name given Old World martens 

 of several species and to the Cape pole-cat, a 

 South African animal which in form and mark- 

 ings, including the plumelike tail, is remark- 

 ably like some of our smaller skunks. 



In the preceding article an account was given 

 of the spotted skunks, smallest of the three 

 groups into which these animals are divided. 

 The common skunk and its relatives form an- 

 other group, which contains some of the larger 

 species of their kind, some of them weighing 

 up to ten pounds or more. These are the typi- 

 cal skunks, so familiar in most parts of the 

 United States, and distinguished by the dis- 

 proportionately large size of the posterior half 

 of the body and the long, plumelike tail. 



The common skunk, with its closely related 

 species, is generally distributed in all varieties 

 of country, except in deep forests and on water- 

 less desert plains. It ranges from the Atlantic 

 coast to the Pacific and from Hudson Bay and 

 Great Slave Lake southward to the highlands 

 of Guatemala. The vertical range extends from 

 sea-level up to above timberline in Mexico, 

 where I found one living in a burrow it had 

 dug under a rock at 13,800 feet altitude on the 

 Cofre de Perote, Vera Cruz. 



Skunks are most common in areas of mixed 

 woodland and fields, in valley bottoms, and 

 along the brushy borders of creeks and rocky 

 canyons. One of their marked characteristics 

 is a fondness for the vicinity of man. They 

 frequently visit his premises, taking up quarters 

 beneath outbuildings or even under the house 

 itself. 



Any convenient shelter appears to satisfy 

 them for a home, and they will occupy the de- 

 serted burrows of other animals, small cavities 

 among the rocks, a hollow log, or a hole dug 

 by themselves. A warm nest of grass and 

 leaves is made at the end of the den, where the 

 single litter of young, containing from four to 

 ten, is born in April or May. As soon as the 

 young are old enough they follow the mother, 

 keeping close behind her, often in a long single 

 file along a trail. They are mainly nocturnal, 

 but in summer the mother frequently starts out 

 on an excursion with her young an hour or 

 two before sunset and they may remain abroad 

 all night. 



The young family remains united through the 

 following winter, which accounts for finding at 

 times from eight to a dozen in a den. In all 

 the northern parts of their range they hibernate 

 during the two to four months of severest cold 



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THE TRAIL OF THE EASTERN CHIPMUNK 



The track is much like that of the fox squir- 

 rel, but usually the fore feet are a little, or 

 quite, one behind the other and, of course, 

 much smaller. No tail mark is ever seen (see 

 pages 440 and 447). 



weather, coming out sometimes during mild 

 periods. When the season of hibernation ends 

 the family scatters and mating begins. One 

 solitary skunk was found in Canada hibernating 



