Complete Tracker by Len McDougall

Author:Len McDougall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762785599
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2014-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis)

Skunks are generally solitary creatures, with most of their activities taking place at night. JOHN COLLINS/USFWS

This weasel’s most enduring image comes from the cartoon character Pepé Le Pew, whose moniker describes the intolerable stench emitted by this most odorous of North America’s native weasels. All weasels have paired perineal scent glands that exude a musky scent used for marking territory and advertising for mates, but in the skunk these glands have been modified to actually shoot a stream of powerful smelling fluid from under the tail into the face of an adversary.

An odor might not seem like much of a defense against large predators, but skunks generally go about their daily lives unmolested once they’ve achieved a size too large to be targeted by eagles and owls. In one videotaped experiment, a rather silly researcher clad in a full-face grinder’s shield and ankle-length rubber apron tormented a striped skunk until it pivoted around on its forefeet and sprayed him dead in the face. The aim was uncanny, and despite being protected from the spray’s full force by his face shield, the volunteer victim immediately fell to his knees, vomiting and blinded by the fumes alone.

A skunk’s spray can reach accurately to 15 feet, and a choking mist from it can drift more than 30 feet outward from the target on all sides. The odor can be smelled by humans from more than a half mile for several days afterward, and a typical skunk can fire up to five times before exhausting its supply of scent. Field researchers are advised to keep a distance of at least 50 feet between themselves and skunk subjects, to avoid having scent sprayed onto their clothing and equipment should the skunk decide to spray a warning perimeter while being observed.

If you are sprayed by a skunk, probably the most effective and available remedy for at least minimizing the stench is to wash both your body and clothing in a mixture of soap and tomato juice. Never wash affected clothing in a machine without hand-washing it first, or the plastic tub found in many washing machines may take on the odor of skunk permanently. If tomato juice is unavailable, good results have been obtained using a hand wash of turpentine, gasoline, or kerosene.

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