s 



FARMERS' BULLETIN 587. 



The 02 stomachs were of animals captured in every month of the 

 year. While the number for some months is very small, analysis of 

 results proves that skunks ordinarily eat food that is abundant and 

 easily obtained. When insects are plentiful, these constitute the 

 whole diet; when they are scarce, the food is of greater variety. Thus 

 skunks taken from January to March had eaten small mammals, liz- 

 ards, crawfish, earthworms, fungi, and a few beetles. The diet in 

 April and May was mainly beetles, a small mammal being the only 

 exception. In June, in every instance, there was an unmixed diet 

 either of beetles, grasshoppers, or cicadas. Eight of 14 skunks taken 

 in July had eaten insects exclusively. In August and September 

 grasshoppers formed the chief diet, but a few beetles also were found. 

 For the last three months of the year the insect diet was varied with 

 otker animal food, while berries were prominent in a few cases. 



Insects eaten by the skunk seem to be mostly of injurious kinds, 

 and the usefulness of this animal is more apparent when there is an 

 invasion of large numbers of some insect pest, as grasshoppers, 

 crickets, cicadas, army worms, or the like. An instance of this was 

 observed in 1913 by E. R. Kalmbach, of this bureau, in northern 

 New Mexico during an invasion of the range caterpillar. Skunks 

 were abundant, and investigation showed that from 60 to 95 per cent 

 of their food was made up of the pupal cases of these insects. On 

 large areas skunks had taken the majority of the pupse. 



SKUNKS AND POULTRY. 



The chief indictment against the skunk is that it destroys poultry, 

 and a few cases of serious losses due to the animal are reported. In 

 many instances of alleged depredations by skunks, it is probable that 

 minks or weasels w T ere the actual culprits, and that skunks merely 

 shared in the plunder by eating the dead poultry. When a farmer 

 loses fowls and does not see the animal killing them he is often 

 likely to mistake its identity. The common skunk can not climb 

 to a roost, and would kill only birds found on the ground. Minks 

 and weasels are expert climbers and are far more bloodthirsty. 

 It is characteristic of the weasel to kill many victims when they 

 are within reach. It makes a small but deep incision in the 

 neck or under the wing of a fowl and takes the blood as long as 

 it flows freely. It then attacks and kills another and another 

 victim, until satisfied. Minks also kill a number of chickens at one 

 visit to the coop, eating only the heads. A skunk, on the contrary, 

 usually takes only one fowl at a time and eats of it until satisfied. 

 Having once, however, acquired a taste for chicken, a skunk will 

 return to the poultry yard night after night for a fresh victim. 



A skunk making its home under sheds and other buildings roams 

 about them at night in search of food, chiefly rats, mice, and insects. 

 That it should occasionally learn to take chickens and eggs is not 



