CHAPTER V.

Habits of The Skunk.

Skunks are found in all parts of the United States, with the exception of the mountainous district of the West. They occur again to the west of the mountain ranges and also are found in most parts of Southern Canada. They are found in the prairie country and in the hilly and mountainous districts of the East, and are at home in the "wilds" as well as in the thickly settled districts, however, they seem to thrive best in the farming sections and especially if the country is of a hilly nature. Their dens are located along the gravelly hillsides, quite often under the roots of trees and stumps but in the prairie they den along the washouts and creek banks. In thickly settled sections they frequently make their home under houses and outbuildings, showing practically no fear of man and often appropriate the den of the woodchuck.

They are nocturnal animals and as a rule do not wander far from the den but in the fall they travel farther, looking for a good den in which to spend the winter. Again, in early spring during the mating season, the males travel considerably. While they are not a hibernating animal, they stay in their dens during cold weather, also when the snow is loose and deep, but are sure to be out on the first nice night.

The mating season of this animal is in February and early March and the young are born mostly in May, although some will be born in April. There are usually from four to ten young in a litter but occasionally there will be a larger number.

The value of a skunk skin depends mainly on its size and markings, they being graded by the buyers entirely by the amount of black fur, providing, of course, that the skin is prime and well handled.

Being slow moving animals, they can not catch the more active animals and birds as do the other members of the weasel family and their food consists mainly of mice, insects and grubs, also of the eggs and young of such birds as nest on the ground. They are very fond of poultry and frequently visit the poultry houses, killing the young birds. They also feed on carrion. When they can get it they will eat almost any kind of animal food. Even in the wild state the skunk is not, strictly speaking, a carnivorous animal as they will eat and in fact are fond of sweet corn when in a milky state, also sweet potatoes, melons and wild fruits. It appears that if the male skunk is not separated from the female at breeding time, the female will kill the male, presumably to protect her young. And on the other hand the male will kill and eat the young if given the chance.

Robert B. Phillips relates the following in H-T-T:

"I wish to relate an experience with the lowly skunk. I found some skunk signs near an old cave large enough for a small boy to creep in. I set one trap near the main entrance and another one about fifteen feet away both fastened to clogs. (I wish to state before I go farther that the cave has a sickening sulphur smell and in the winter time, no matter how deep the snow is elsewhere, you will not find any for about three feet around the mouth of the cave.) Well I visited the traps the next morning and upon arriving at the cave I saw two skunks about twenty feet from the hole. One was eating at the hind quarters of the other. Of course I thought they were both in my traps, but when about forty feet away the victorious skunk saw me and started climbing an embankment below the cave and I noticed he did not have a toe pincher clinging to him. The skunk was only two feet from his dwelling when I made a quick shot with a twenty two rifle. Of course I missed so I knew he was gone for the time being. I went to the other one and found him breathing his last. He had his entire tail, scent glands and the meat all eaten off the bones at the junction of the hind legs and the base of the backbone. In fact the hole in the body was so large that a full sized baseball could be put into the abdomen and the skunk still had a little life in him yet. Neither of them had thrown their scent.

"Two days later I caught the other one, the largest male skunk I ever caught. When I went there he was leisurely eating a rabbit he had evidently caught. This happened in the beginning of December and both were male skunks.

"I know of another case where skunks turned Cannibalistic. This happened to some young trappers who were in the habit of catching the skunks in September and early October and keeping them until they were prime. They had eight or nine in an old spring wagon. One morning he went out to see them and found they had killed and eaten one of their own number. There are a few of those fellows around here. They are afraid another fellow might catch one or two of them.

"One time I caught a skunk and I got quite near it kept on digging in the leaves and every once in a while it would unearth a bug or insect which it would promptly devour. Some people have an idea that a skunk does nothing but steal chickens. This he does sometimes, but he makes up for that by catching cut worms and other insects which spoil thousands of dollars worth of crops annually. I have opened their stomachs already and found centipedes and angle worms and lots of beetles in them. Skunk also loves mice."

Breeding.

Earl Williamson says:

"I see in the H-T-T where persons have found skunk dens with nearly all female skunks. My experience has been that in every den there is one male and two or more females; twenty-two being the highest I have ever heard of being taken from one den. The females and male den up early while the rest travel around in nice weather and stay in any hole in bad weather."

Says a Nebraska trapper: "I have seen from 2 to 12 skunk in one den, but never more than 1 male with a den of females. The males of a litter seem to be forced to leave, only one remaining. The males so treated den themselves individually at a distance from the herd of females, returning in the spring. I have never known them to use their odor in a fight among themselves, neither have I known them to make a noise other than patting on the ground with their front feet."

J. M. Bray writes of Skunk Handling:

"Norris Johnson, John K. Hallman and myself went into the ring and started the performance by taking a pair each of live skunks by the tails and holding them while the pictures were taken. Some of the onlookers thought that was wonderful the way we handled those skunks. Now, right here is where I want to say that you can do it just as well as I can, if it is necessary for you to handle them. Go to them with a quiet, but firm step; take a good hold on their tails and you can carry them anywhere you want to. I have had a number of inquiries whether my skunks were odorless. I will say they are not and it is not necessary to make them odorless. If you use them gently you can have them around for a year and no one would know that you had them. Some ask, will black skunks breed all black, or will some breed back into lower grades? It is a known fact that all animals will breed back sometimes, but by having black you will breed black. But I find by having black bucks and by having short stripe females (and no threes or fours) your breed will be from fifty to seventy-five per cent black, or No. 1.

"Some have asked me what to feed them. Skunks will eat anything that a cat or dog will eat, also various fruits, such as apples, pears, persimmons, sweet corn or field corn (so long as the grains are soft). Where you have a number you will have to figure on the feed. Skim milk and stale bread, butchers' scraps, meat from dead animals, dead chickens or anything of that nature, but it will be necessary to vary their feed occasionally.

"If you start with a pair or so for an experiment you do not need such a large enclosure, but if you want to make a business of it, then I would advise you not to be afraid to spend a few dollars on your pen and the larger the lot the larger the pen. Don't crowd them or you will be the loser."

Skunk have no means of defense other than their scent, but this is sufficient in many cases and the majority of people will give them a wide berth. This scent is only used when alarmed or frightened and in captivity there is no trouble whatever from this source as they soon learn that there is no occasion for alarm and become quite tame.

CULLED FROM CORRESPONDENCE.

"While trapping this last season I caught a skunk each night for three nights in succession at the same den and the three brought $12.00 which I thought was pretty good for three skunks out of the same den. I have caught as high as eight skunks in one day."--Lee Guthrie.

"Skunks can be raised as easily as house cats, providing you have an enclosure where they cannot dig out or climb over. For every hundred old skunks, you should have an acre of ground enclosed.

"I experimented for three years on a small scale. The first year I had one male and three females. They brought forth fifteen young. One died, plus four old ones, leaving eighteen--eleven females and seven males. Five of the young graded as No. 2, balance star black.

"The second year I started with twelve females and two males, bringing forth forty-three young, plus fourteen old ones, total fifty-seven, less three, which died, leaving a balance of fifty-four. I took out seventeen males and five No. 2 females, leaving a balance of thirty-two black ones."--I. M. Bray.

"When cold weather comes the female dens up and with very few exceptions does not stir until mating season which is in February. Trappers will tell you that fully 90 per cent of the November, December and January catch are males. After February 10, when the running season is on the catch is largely females. At this season a skunk tracked to its den and dug out has often resulted in as many as eight or ten. These are mostly females."--H-T-T.

"In regard to the habits of skunk in the Elkhorn River District, Nebraska, will say they usually den in old badger holes, cleaning them out in the fall, sometimes making a cavity in them 2x3 feet by 18 inches high, preferring hilltops, bluffs and slough banks as situations. Sometimes they dig dens themselves, seldom going over 1 foot below the surface. The cavity is bedded 6 inches deep and the hole about half filled with dry grass."--Nebraskan.

"Farm readers, please don't kill the skunk during the summer when his hide is worthless, because he got a chicken or two, but wait and take his hide in the winter. It will more than pay for the chicken if you really must rid your back woods of him, why not take him with box traps and start a fur farm?"--Peerless Bum.

"John M. McCrary asks if we have ever heard a skunk make a noise. I can answer that by saying positively yes. I have two male skunks together in a pen and we have been awakened every night about 10 o'clock by their hideous squeals. They seem to be very congenial during the daytime," says Harold Pugh.

Probably the sound you think so hideous is sweet music to the skunks. However, it may be their war cry. If you would watch them and study their habits, especially at night, you might make some valuable contributions to our knowledge of skunk habits.

"Why don't all of you fellows start a fur farm? It will be the most paying business in the country pretty soon."--Albert C. Hancock.

"The natural habits of the skunk is to live in holes in the ground, rocks, trees, stumps, etc. Their food consists of mice, birds, bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, yellow jackets, angle worms, seeds, berries, ground roots and barks."--Bureau of Agriculture.

Beyond all doubt the skunk has been given more consideration by raisers of fur-bearers than any other animal, with the exception of the fox. There are many who have tried raising these animals with more or less success and where the experimenters have used good judgment and have given the subject all of the attention it deserves, they have been reasonably successful. Most of these people have started in on a small scale, having perhaps only a dozen or two of skunks to start with; in fact nowhere has the business been carried on as extensively as some newspaper articles would lead one to believe; the majority of these parties having at the most only two or three hundred animals.

It is the smaller experimenters, in other words those who have begun on a small scale, who have been most successful. They are for the most part farmers who had even before venturing into the business a fair knowledge of the nature and habits of the skunk and therefore were more qualified for making the business a successful one. Farmers naturally take an interest in all nature and are most likely to give the proper amount of attention to the animals, also learn their habits readily and act accordingly and these qualities are absolutely necessary for the successful raising of all fur-bearing animals.