The skunk’s black and white markings warn predators, even those lacking color vision, to beware of the noxious spray this animal is capable of unleashing. The skunk’s defense mechanism is so effective they seem to fear no other animal. When threatened they often run toward much larger animals and chase them away. Nevertheless, skunks do suffer predation. Most notably, great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) specialize in taking skunks, and the owls seem to be immune to the spray. For this reason some great horned owls smell like skunk. Cougars stalk and kill skunks before the skunk has time to respond. Formerly, some Native Americans preferred skunk to other types of meat such as turkey.
Scientists no longer consider skunks to be members of the weasel family, the mustelidae. Instead, skunks and old world stink badgers belong to a family all their own known as the mephitidae. Today, Georgia is h0me to 2 species of skunks–the striped (Mephitis mephitis) and the spotted (Spilogale putorious). During the Pleistocene hog-nosed skunks (Conepatus leuconotus) lived throughout the south as well, leaving fossils at Ladds Mountain, Bartow County, Georgia and several sites in Florida. The extinct short-faced skunk (Brachyprotoma obtusata) may have extended its range into the upper south but was more of a boreal species. Fossils of this species have been found as far south as Arkansas.
Striped skunk–the most common species found in Georgia today and probably during the Pleistocene.
Striped skunks are the most common skunk in Georgia today, and are the only species found in more than 1 fossil site in state, so they likely were the most common species throughout the Pleistocene. Striped skunks are omnivorous, feeding on small mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, and fruit. I’ve never seen a live individual, but I have frequently seen road-killed skunks in rural areas of north Georgia. They prefer broken country with a mix of fields and woods. Curiously, they’re rare near Augusta, Georgia, perhaps because there aren’t many farms with stores of grain that attract enough mice to entice skunks.
Spotted skunk. When a spotted skunk displays a handstand flee the scene immediately…it’s about to spray.
I did see a live spotted skunk once in 1990, while I was throwing a paper route at about 5:00 am on Sand Bar Ferry Road located east of downtown Augusta. Spotted skunks are attractive little animals that climb trees–an unusual behavior for a skunk. Spotted skunks prefer forest edge and prairie habitats and are common in the middle part of North America but less abundant on the edges.
Hog-nosed skunk. Note the claws for digging up grubs.
Current range of hog-nosed skunk and closely related South American species. During the Ice Age its range expanded into the southeast of North America because there was more brushy arid habitat then.
Hog-nosed skunks prefer arid brush and grassland habitats, thus explaining why they occupied the south during the Ice Age but no longer occur here. Arid scrub habitat expanded across the southeast during the Ice Age because the climate was drier then. Like striped and spotted skunks, hog-nosed skunks are omnivorous but rely more on insects for a greater part of their diet than other skunk species.
Little is known about the extinct short-faced skunk. It was a small skunk, more like the spotted skunk than any other extant species. Based on its fossil distribution, it was an animal of the boreal forests that predominated south of the ice sheet. It co-existed with the other 3 species of skunks, but unlike them, it failed to adapt to the environmental changes that occurred ~8,000 years BP. Perhaps, they were more vulnerable to diseases carried by an increased population of parasites in the warming climate.
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