Daddy is ninety-six years old. I always find his skunk stories fascinating. In his teenage years, Daddy and his buddy went skunk hunting at night where skunks went to eat dead chickens at the neighbors’ place.
Spying a skunk, his buddy would get its attention till Daddy got a chance to grab its tail, quickly lifting it off the ground. They believed that skunks can’t spray with all four feet off the ground.
While his buddy held the burlap wide open, Daddy dropped the skunk in, making sure its forefeet didn’t come in contact with the bag. They never put more than two skunks into the sack at once.
They took the live skunks to a man who paid for their fur. Daddy got five dollars for a narrow white stripe and three dollars for a wide white striped skunk.
Checking his traps early one morning, Daddy found a skunk in one of the traps. With a long pole, he carried the trap and skunk to a fifty-gallon barrel. There Daddy laid the pole across the middle of the open barrel with trap and skunk dangling from the pole. While Daddy was in the act of releasing the skunk, it somehow found support for its forefeet and gave Daddy a shower.
A striped skunk’s habitat is open forest, farmland, brushy areas, or prairies, usually near water. There they dig a den or borrow an unoccupied burrow. Skunks also den in hollow trees, in wood piles, and under buildings. On cold winter days, skunks enter torpor, but on warmer days, they come out to hunt.
These mild-natured creatures prefer to be left alone. They have small lungs and tire easily but can run up to about 9 mph (14 km/h) for a short distance.
Skunks have no need to hurry, neither to hunt nor to escape from enemies. If a skunk is threatened by an enemy, it hisses and growls, stamps its forefeet, and waves its tail. If this warning fails, the skunk arches its back, then positions itself in a U shape with its nose and tail both toward its enemy. Then it discharges its foul-smelling yellow liquid from its scent glands located at the base of its tail. This liquid can be aimed with great accuracy for about 15 feet (4.5 m). It can cause temporary blindness if it enters the eyes.
A skunk’s glands hold enough to spray five to six times in a week, so skunks spray only in emergencies.
If you or your pet gets sprayed, mix a quart of hydrogen peroxide, one-fourth cup of baking soda, and a liberal squirt of dish soap. Rub it in well; then rinse off with water. This is an excellent skunk spray deodorizer.
Skunks’ enemies include dogs, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, cougars, and fishers. However, most animals soon learn to leave skunks alone…most, that is, except the Great Horned Owl, which is the skunk’s greatest enemy.
The female skunk gives birth to four to eight kits. They are born deaf and blind and barely have hair. In three weeks their eyes open, and by four weeks, they are playing and practicing lifting their tails to spray, though only mild-smelling puffs come out. By six to seven weeks, their secret weapon is fully developed. Mama skunk takes them out to hunt, and they follow her in single file.
Skunks have poor eyesight. They find prey by their keen smelling and hearing. With sharp teeth and claws, they can easily dig up shallow mouse burrows and open rotten logs for insects. At night when the dew has fallen and temperatures are cooler, most plant-eating insects get sluggish and can easily be devoured. Skunks eat many other things, including fruit, frogs, snakes, birds, chipmunks, minnows, crayfish, and eggs. They are immune to snake venom, and help keep the snapping turtle population under control by digging up and eating their eggs.
Beekeepers don’t like skunks, for skunks scratch at the hives till the guard bees come out. Then they gobble the bees down, seeming not to mind their stings.
But if you see a skunk wandering in your garden, rejoice, for it feasts on pests that ruin your plants.
“And God made the beast of the earth…and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25)
Editor’s note: I’ve heard stories for years about people catching skunks in the way described in this story so as to not get sprayed. Actually, skunks CAN spray when their feet are not touching something. Why they often have not as per stories we hear from people we trust, I don’t know. But a blanket statement that says they cannot spray is not accurate.
I know of one person who picked up a skunk, thinking it was a cat. He carried it home on his bike only to be told what it was. He didn’t get sprayed either. All I can say is, “Don’t try that at home.”
This happened about four miles from Nature Friend.