State officials warn of mating season for eastern striped skunks
It’s mating season for Connecticut’s eastern striped skunks. That’s not exactly welcome news for the humans sharing some of their territory.
Skunks breed from February into March, so the animals’ signature stink is wafting around this time of year, according to a Valentine’s Day Facebook post by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Males use their scent to attract females, and in some cases, a female skunk may use her scent glands to fend off advances. So whether it’s attraction or rejection, love truly does stink for skunks.
The weasel family member (Latin name: mephitis mephitis, or “bad odor”) is widespread in the state and across North America. After a gestation period of 62 to 68 days, an average of six blind and helpless young are born between late April and early June, according to the DEEP fact sheet on skunks. At three weeks, young skunks open their eyes and begin crawling. At seven weeks, they venture out with mother and are able to spray musk. Young skunks usually disperse during the fall of their first year. Adult males are generally solitary except during the mating season.
Eastern striped skunks prefer open fields with low brush. Early farming in Connecticut probably increased the suitability of
habitat, and as farms were abandoned in the late 1800s, the reverting fields continued to provide good habitat, according to DEEP. Mature forest is less suitable for skunks, but the animals also thrive in urban and suburban areas with only remnants of undeveloped land.
The skunk’s distinctive stench comes from glands embedded in muscles on either side of its rectum. A skunk can spray its sticky, yellow fluid more than 10 feet and its aim is sure.
Peter Reid knows firsthand about skunk spray. The assistant director at
Wildlife in Crisis, a nonprofit organization in Weston dedicated to “wildlife preservation and land conservation,” said in an interview Tuesday that he was called out once to rescue a skunk from a soccer net. He thought the animal was dead until it opened its eyes, raised its tail and spritzed him right in the face. Reid said he went to the homeowner’s door to tell her he had rescued the skunk and she replied, “You stink!” Reid recalled. “I said, ‘Thanks, ma’am.’ ”
But the animals are mild tempered and spray
only if provoked, giving warning by stamping their front feet and arching their tails. Also, Reid said, new products work better to banish the smell than the age-old tomato juice method.
The bigger problem in Connecticut, he said, is orphaned skunks. His animal rescue organization hosts as many as 30 motherless babies each year. People hire nuisance wildlife outfits to get rid of adult skunks after finding them living under or near their homes, he said. After the adults are trapped and killed, the young emerge
from the den in troops of six or eight, typically in June, looking for food.
Wildlife in Crisis staff care for the animals for about three months and then release them, Reid said. The young skunks instinctively begin digging for grubs and insects almost immediately, he said.
Although they have excellent senses of smell and hearing, skunks cannot see objects clearly more than a few feet away, which makes them vulnerable to getting hit by cars when they are on the road.
Weighing 6 to 14 pounds and measuring up to 26 inches long, the mostly nocturnal animals are omniverous, consuming grubs, small mammals, worms, snails, nuts, fruits, frogs, bird and turtle eggs, carrion, and garbage. Sharp teeth and long claws are good for digging and tearing into rotten logs in search of food.
“With short legs and a flat-footed gait, they move slowly and appear to waddle unconcerned,” Edwin Matthews of Washington, Conn., wrote in a firstperson story for Hearst Connecticut Media newspapers. “Skunks do not hide and do not run, and are not at risk from other creatures because they carry an invulnerable weapon advertised by their prominent coat. As Charles Darwin noted, ‘conscious of its power, (the skunk) roams by day about the open plain, and fears neither dog nor man.’ ”
Skunks do have one formidable predator, however. A skunk that sprayed his cat, Matthews wrote, fell prey to a great horned owl, a silent and powerful hunter that lacks a sense of smell.
Skunks can carry rabies, and one seized last year in Farmington by animal control officers tested positive for the potentially fatal disease. DEEP cautions that if a skunk is stumbling, staggering, walking in circles, dragging a limb or the hind end, or if it is acting strangely (approaching people or pets in an aggressive manner), never attempt to handle the animal. Call your local animal control officer, police department, or DEEP dispatch (860-424-3333) immediately to get assistance.