Wild Skunks and Raccoons are Thriving Coast to Coast

By Terry Krautwurst
Published on September 8, 2008
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The tail is up, you’ve been warned! The potent musk of the striped skunk can linger for weeks.
The tail is up, you’ve been warned! The potent musk of the striped skunk can linger for weeks.
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With its nimble fingers and masked face, the raccoon is nature’s cutest thief.
With its nimble fingers and masked face, the raccoon is nature’s cutest thief.
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“Hey, how did we end up in this position?” Raccoons are curious — and adventurous — critters.
“Hey, how did we end up in this position?” Raccoons are curious — and adventurous — critters.
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You can discourage raccoons from thinking of your backyard as a buffet by not leaving trash cans outdoors at night. Tight lids may not be enough to keep ‘coons out of trash cans, given their remarkable dexterity.
You can discourage raccoons from thinking of your backyard as a buffet by not leaving trash cans outdoors at night. Tight lids may not be enough to keep ‘coons out of trash cans, given their remarkable dexterity.
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Both raccoons and skunks mate in winter or early spring, and babies are born about two months later. Young skunks may go off on their own by fall.
Both raccoons and skunks mate in winter or early spring, and babies are born about two months later. Young skunks may go off on their own by fall.
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The stripes of the striped skunk, which typically start as one stripe at the neck, break into two across the back, then converge again to make a single stripe across the tail.
The stripes of the striped skunk, which typically start as one stripe at the neck, break into two across the back, then converge again to make a single stripe across the tail.
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Both raccoons and skunks mate in winter or early spring, and babies are born about two months later. Raccoons usually stay with their mothers until the following spring.
Both raccoons and skunks mate in winter or early spring, and babies are born about two months later. Raccoons usually stay with their mothers until the following spring.
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The five-fingered hands of the raccoon are among the most dexterous in nature — their flexibility and sensitivity rival that of monkeys and humans.
The five-fingered hands of the raccoon are among the most dexterous in nature — their flexibility and sensitivity rival that of monkeys and humans.
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Raccoons are excellent swimmers, but don’t dive at the chance because their fur isn’t waterproof.
Raccoons are excellent swimmers, but don’t dive at the chance because their fur isn’t waterproof.
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The spotted skunk is the smallest North American skunk, weighing just 1 or 2 pounds.
The spotted skunk is the smallest North American skunk, weighing just 1 or 2 pounds.

Woods-wise and city-smart, skunks and raccoons are among our nation’s most abundant and widely distributed wild mammals. That’s the good news — and the bad news. On the one hand, they’re charismatic creatures with fascinating natural histories and remarkable survival skills. On the other, they can be serious pests and carriers of potentially deadly diseases. To some, they’re just varmints: unwanted and unappreciated, the animal version of weeds.

With a closer look, though, you’ll find that the reasons behind the animals’ uneasy status have at least as much to do with us as them.

Mild-Mannered Skunk Stinkers

To many humans a skunk is a skunk is a skunk, but the truth is North America can boast (or not) four different kinds: spotted, hog-nosed, hooded and striped. Until recently, all were considered members of the weasel family. But taxonomists now place them in their own family, Mephitidae, a name based on the Latin word for noxious stench.

Weighing in at just 1 or 2 pounds is the runt of the family, the spotted skunk. Sleek, slender and secretive, the spotted skunk is weasellike — it can climb trees like a squirrel — but there’s no mistaking its bushy-tailed black-and-white skunky looks. It’s not so much spotted as covered with blotchy, broken stripes. There’s a stink among biologists over whether there are two species — eastern and western — or whether they’re the same species, and never mind the geographics. In any case, spotted skunks of one kind or another are widely but lightly distributed across the contiguous United States (except the East Coast, Northeast and Great Lakes).

Some experts think that our least common skunk, the hog-nosed, also is two distinct species: again, eastern and western, and again, a case of taxonomical hair-splitting. Regardless, this skunk — a common resident of Mexico and Central America — barely pokes its naked pigletlike snout into the United States, venturing only as far as southern Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and the western tip of Oklahoma. The hooded skunk — so called for the long white hairs on its head and neck — also is a Mexican émigré, and shares the extreme southern borders of the hog-nosed’s range.

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