Striped Skunk: North American Nocturnal Roamings of Mephitis mephitis

Summary: Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis) is a New World skunk familiar as nocturnal roamer throughout North American homelands (Canada south to northern Mexico).

Striped Skunk, with arched back and raised tail as warning to potential foes: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr

Mephitis mephitis is a New World skunk native to North America from northern Mexico to southern mainland Canada.

In Canada, homelands stretch from coast-to-coast in all provinces except for Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador as well as in southern Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory.

In the United States, Mephitis mephitis ranges throughout the entire Lower 48.

In Mexico, Mephitis mephitis is native to all seven northern states: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas.

Mephitis mephitis is known commonly in English as Striped Skunk.

The Striped Skunk features a jet black, stout body marked with two long white stripes, one on each side, that join at the nape and flare into a cap atop the small head. A narrow white stripe extends from the forehead down to the nose. The bushy black tail often is interspersed with white strands or tipped with white.

The Striped Skunk’s mature size matches that of a domestic cat. With males slightly larger than females, adults average lengths, from nose to tail, ranging from 22 inches to 31 inches (55.8 to 78.74 centimeters). The tail may contribute almost 50 percent to the total body length.

Short legs account for the Striped Skunk’s slow, waddling gait. As a plantigrade (Latin: planta, "sole of the foot" + gradus, "step") mammal, the Striped Skunk touches the ground with full soles of feet.

Five partially webbed toes are endowed with long, non-retractable claws, which are longer and curved, for digging, on front feet and shorter and straighter on hind feet. Striped Skunk tracks average 2 inches (5.08 centimeters) in length by 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) in width.

When feeling threatened, an adult Striped Skunk may release from grape-size anal scent glands a pungent fluid, either as a fine spray or as a stream. The excretion has a reach from 10 to over 18 feet (3.048 to 5.48 meters).

Amounting to about one tablespoon in each gland, the oil-based, yellow musk lasts for five to eight firings. With about a week required for replenishing glands, the Striped Skunk exhibits thrift in dispensing the limited supply.

The Striped Skunk has an average lifespan of three years in the wild. A Striped Skunk's lifespan averages 10 to 15 years in captivity.

Striped Skunk displays habitat versatility in rural, suburban and urban environments.

As an opportunistic omnivore with a partiality for insects such as beetles (order Coleoptera) and grasshoppers (suborder Caelifera), the Striped Skunk values locations with abundant supplies of food and cover.

As a crepuscular and nocturnal mammal, the Striped Skunk especially enjoys roaming in open areas and forest edges at twilight and during the night.

The threat of being sprayed by the Striped Skunk’s foul scent dissuades many predators. Emboldened by a poor sense of smell, however, the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) engages in serious predation of Striped Skunks.

One evening before my black-and-white Maine Coon cat, Augusta "Gusty" Sunshine, transitioned from stray to house cat, I heard her mew from the north retaining wall in my front yard.

Looking out, I observed Gusty, her black-splotched white coat gleaming in the moonlight, leaning down from her perch to touch noses with two Striped Skunks -- their coats a study in opposites to Gusty's -- who were craning to reach her from the ground.

Always generous as a stray with her food, she inched backward to allow her sociable guests to share in her bedtime snack.

Striped Skunk foraging in snow along stream near ID Highway 20 between Yellowstone National Park and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest: Dan and Lin Dzurisin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Striped Skunk, with arched back and raised tail as warning to potential foes: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, CC BY ND 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/widnr/6511386457/

Striped Skunk foraging in snow along stream near ID Highway 20 between Yellowstone National Park and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest: Dan and Lin Dzurisin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Striped_Skunk_(Mephitis_mephitis)_DSC_0030.jpg