Striped Skunk

The striped skunk was first formally named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber as Viverra mephitis. The type locality is in eastern Canada.

The earliest fossil finds attributable to Mephitis were found in the Broadwater site in Nebraska, dating back to the early Pleistocene less than 1.8 million years ago. By the late Pleistocene (70,000–14,500 years ago), the striped skunk was widely distributed throughout the southern United States, and it expanded northwards and westwards by the Holocene (10,000–4,500 years ago) following the retreat of the Wisconsin glacier. Phylogenetic analyses of the species' cytochrome b gene and microsatellite data in 2012 indicated that there are four phylogroups of striped skunk. The first emerged from the Texas-Mexico region during the Rancholabrean before the Illinoian glaciation and colonized the southeastern United States. The second, still originating in the Texas-Mexico region, expanded westwards to the Rocky Mountains during the Illinoian glacial period. Two subsequent subclades were formed during the Sangamonian interglacial on either side of the Sierra Nevada. The subclade that colonized the Great Basin later expanded eastwards across the northern Rocky Mountains during the Holocene, recolonising the Great Plains and making contact with the southern phylogroup. A similar, but less significant, secondary contact occurred when the same subclade intermingled with members of the eastern phylogroup east of the Mississippi river. |Eastern Canada; Nova Scotia, Quebec, and northern Ontario. |M. americana (Desmarest, 1818), chinche (Fischer, 1829), mephitica (Saw, 1792), vulgaris (F. Cuvier, 1842) |- |Illinois skunkM. m. avia | | |Bangs, 1898 |Similar to M. m. mesomelas, but with a slightly larger skull. |Prairie region of Illinois, western Indiana, and eastern Iowa. |newtonensis Brown, 1908 |- |Florida skunkM. m. elongata | | |Bangs, 1895 |A medium-sized subspecies with a very long tail. The white markings are usually very broad. |Florida to North Carolina, and in the mountains to West Virginia; west on the Gulf coast to the Mississippi River. | |- |Arizona skunkM. m. estor | | |Merriam, 1890 |A small subspecies resembling M. m. varians, but with a shorter tail and smaller skull. The white markings are particularly broad along the back and tail. |Arizona, western New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, and northern Lower California; south in the Sierra Madre to southern Chihuahua. | |- |Southern California skunkM. m. holzneri | | |Mearns, 1898 |Similar to M. m. occidentalis, but smaller. |Southern California, from vicinity of Monterey Bay south into Lower California; east to the Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Range. | |- |Northern plains skunkM. m. hudsonica | | |Richardson, 1829 |A very large subspecies with a heavily furred, medium-sized tail. |Western Canada, from Manitoba to British Columbia; south in the United States to Colorado, Nebraska, and Minnesota. |americana (Lesson, 1865), chinga (Tiedemann, 1808), minnesotoe (Brass, 1911) |- |Great Basin skunkM. m. major | | |Howell, 1901 |Probably the largest subspecies, similar to M. m. occidentalis, but with longer hind feet and a heavier skull. |Eastern Oregon, northern California, and Nevada; east to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. | |- |Louisiana skunkM. m. mesomelas | | |Lichtenstein, 1832 |A very small, short-tailed subspecies. |West side of Mississippi Valley from southern Louisiana to Missouri; westward along the coast of Texas to Matagorda Island; and up the Red River Valley as far at least as Wichita Falls. |mesomeles (Gerrard, 1862), scrutator (Bangs, 1896) |- |Eastern skunkM. m. nigra | | |Peale and Palisot de Beauvois, 1796 |A medium-sized subspecies, with a longer tail than that of M. m. mephitis. |New England and Middle Atlantic States; south to Virginia; west to Indiana. |bivirgata (C. E. H. Smith, 1839), dentata (Brass, 1911), fetidissima (Boitard, 1842), frontata (Coues, 1875), olida (Boitard, 1842), putida (Boitard, 1842) |- |Cascade Mountains skunkM. m. notata | | |Hall, 1936 |Similar to M. m. occidentalis, but with a shorter tail, heavier skull, and narrower stripes. |Southern Washington and northern Oregon, east of the Cascade Mountains. | |- |California skunkM. m. occidentalis | | |Baird, 1858 |A large subspecies resembling M. m. hudsonica, but with a longer tail and narrower skull. |Northern and central California, from the vicinity of Monterey Bay northward, west of the Sierra and Cascades, to the Willamette Valley, Oregon. |notata (Howell, 1901), platyrhina (Howell, 1901) |- |Puget Sound skunkM. m. spissigrada | | |Bangs, 1898 |Similar to M. m. occidentalis, but with a shorter tail and more white on the body and tail. |Shores of Puget Sound and coastal region of Washington and northern Oregon. |foetulenta (Elliot, 1899) |- |Texas long-tailed skunkM. m. varians | | |Gray, 1837 |A large, very long-tailed subspecies whose markings closely approach those of M. m. hudsonica. |Southern and western Texas, eastern New Mexico, and adjacent parts of Mexico; north into Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. |texana (Low, 1879) |- |}

The English word skunk has two root words of Algonquian and Iroquoian origin, specifically seganku (Abenaki) and scangaresse (Huron). Local indigenous names include: {|class="wikitable" |+Indigenous names for Mephitis mephitis |- ! Linguistic group or area !! Indigenous name |- |Abenaki || |- |Chipewyan || |- |Plains Cree || ᓯᑳᐠ |- |Swampy, Moose, and James Bay Cree || ᔑᑳᒄ |- | Lenape || |- | Menominee || |- | Meskwaki-Sauk-Kickapoo, Shawnee || |- |‌ Mi'kmaq || |- | Ojibwe || |- | Potawatomi || |- |Tŝilhqot'in (Chilcotin) || |- |Huron || |- |Ogallala Sioux || |- |Yankton Sioux || |}

===Reproduction and development=== The striped skunk is polygamous, and normally breeds once a year, though yearling females who have failed to mate may enter a second estrous cycle a month after the first. The mating season usually occurs between mid-February to mid-April, though it is delayed at higher latitudes. Prior to copulating, the males' testicles swell during the January–February period, with maximum size being attained in March. Males during this period will cover much ground in their search for females, sometimes covering per night. though a litter of 18 is known from Pennsylvania. Kits are born blind and sparsely furred, weighing 25–40 grams. The eyes open after around three weeks, and they are weaned after 42–56 days. Although their musk is still undeveloped, kits of this age will instinctively assume the defensive stand position when threatened. At this point, the kits may accompany their mother outside the den, becoming independent after months.

The striped skunk may dig its own dens, though it will appropriate those abandoned by other animals should the opportunity present itself. These dens are normally used only in late fall, winter, and early spring, while females with unweaned kits make use of them in late spring and summer. In cultivated areas, striped skunks will dig their dens in fencerows, likely because they are less likely to be disturbed by machinery or livestock. In winter it is common for a single den to be occupied by multiple females and a single male. During this period, the striped skunk saves its energy by lowering its body temperature from 38 °C to 32 °C. Although it will forage for short periods in winter, it primarily depends on its fat reserves in cold weather, and can lose as much as 50% of its body weight.

===Habitat=== The striped skunk inhabits a wide variety of habitats, particularly mixed woodlands, brushy corners and open fields interspersed with wooded ravines and rocky outcrops. Some populations, particularly in northwestern Illinois, prefer cultivated areas over uncultivated ones.

Because of its formidable defensive capability, the striped skunk has few natural enemies. Mammalian predators typically avoid skunks, unless they are starving. Such predators include cougars, coyotes, bobcats, badgers, and red and gray foxes. Predatory birds, including golden and bald eagles, and great horned owls tend to have greater success in hunting skunks, though they still risk being blinded by their prey's musk.

The striped skunk is one of the major carriers of the rabies virus, second only to raccoons in the US where skunks are 25% of annual cases. Skunks are the primary hosts in the north- and south-central United States as well as in Canada. Cases of rabies in this species are generally epizootic and recurrent. They are also host for the canine parvovirus and may also suffer from leptospirosis. A striped skunk from Texas was found to be a host of an intestinal acanthocephalan worm, Pachysentis canicola.

===In culture=== ]] The striped skunk is commonly featured in the myths and oral traditions of Native Americans. Some stories try to explain its striped pattern or how it got its smell. Skunks fill various roles in legends and may be featured as heroes, villains, tricksters, or monsters. For the Muscogee people, the skunk represented family loyalty and defense of loved ones. The Winnebago people used the skunk to symbolize vanity, being beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside. The striped skunk was once called the "emblem of America" by Ernest Thompson Seton. It has been prevalent in modern popular culture, being the subject of various jazz and funk songs like Cab Calloway's "Skunk Song" and the Brecker Brothers' "Some Skunk Funk". The skunk connection in these genres may be due to the term "funk" being a term for strong odor. The novelty song "Dead Skunk" by Loudon Wainwright III was popular in the early 1970s. Skunks are also popular characters in children's stories, comics and cartoons, most notably the Warner Bros. character Pepé Le Pew and the Disney character Flower from the 1942 animated film Bambi, their musky odor making them a source of fear and ostracization.

The striped skunk is one of North America's most sought-after furbearers, and was once the second most harvested after the muskrat. Its fur is intrinsically valuable, being durable and having rich luster, though this trait decreases with wear and exposure to sunlight. Skunk pelts are divided into four grades, with the most prized being the ones with a greater amount of black. These grades are further subdivided in value according to their locality, with the most valuable occurring in northern regions, where the fur is finer and darker. Skunks are notable for being easy to trap, even approaching traps they had been previously caught in. Because skunks are difficult to kill without having them discharge their musk (and thus ruin their fur) they were typically dispatched with a paralyzing blow to the lower back or drowned if caught in a box trap. Skunk farming largely began during the late 1890s, when there was much foreign demand for their skins, and intensive trapping had largely extirpated the more valuable mostly black-colored specimens. Captive breeding of skunks proved relatively simple when compared to mink and marten farming, as skunks are easier to tame and have less specialized dietary needs. Emphasis was placed on selectively breeding the tamest and darkest colored skunks. Prior to the First World War, skunk pelts were primarily shipped to Europe until better methods of deodorizing and processing the skins lead to increased interest in selling them for North American consumption. Despite being easy to breed and manage, skunk farming was not overly profitable, as the relatively low price of the pelts did not compensate for the costs in maintaining them. Nevertheless, raising skunks was considered good practice for amateur fur farmers wishing to later move on to more valuable furbearers like martens, sable, mink and silver foxes. File:Skunks fur skins.jpg|Striped skunk pelts File:Striped skunk tracks.png|Tracks in the snow

The striped skunk is easily tamed and was often kept in barns to kill rats and mice during the 19th century.

The striped skunk was regularly eaten by trappers and indigenous peoples, provided the animal was not too old or had not sprayed before being killed. The fat was once reputed to make an excellent lubricant. The musk was once used as a folk remedy for asthma, despite its very strong odor.