Plush Toys, information and facts about skunks.
Skunks are dangerous but not deadly. The common or striped skunk, Mephitis, and its relatives, the hog-nosed skunk and the little spotted skunk, are American animals famous for the degree to which they have perfected the art of defensive chemical warfare.
Provoke the skunk,
and you will learn to your great regret that it can project a fine spray for a distance of nine feet or more. The fluid has a most distasteful and nauseating stench and produces intense smarting and burning if it comes in contact with the membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth. If it penetrates clothing, the odor may not depart for weaks.
These weapons are really two large musk glands situated at the base of the tail. When the skunk becomes frightened or annoyed, it contracts the muscles surrounding the glands, forcing out the spray. With a good wind blowing, the smell may carry farther than a half mile.
There is enough ammunition for at least six shots. It takes awhile before the skunk can reload. The skunk uses this weapon only as a last resort. When confronted with a foe, it first stamps its foot impatiently. If that doesn't work, it raises its white striped tail with the tip hanging limp. However, if the foe gets any closer, up goes the tip of the tail and a barrage of acrid spray is launched with deadly accuracy at the head of the foe. This temporarily blinds the foe, allowing the skunk to amble off.
The skunk is slow and deliberate in its actions. If left alone it strolls along peacefully. Now and then it will stop to dig up a nest of yellowjackets (wasps) with its sharp claws, and eat the grubs, for insects are a staple in its diet. Or it may speed up to a trot and catch a fleeing mouse, snake or frog. All kinds of creeping things are food for the skunk, as well as berries, fruits and grain. Since the skunk is nocturnal, most people do not see it as it ambles about during its nightly forays.
By day the skunk rests or sleeps. Its den is a hollow log or, more often, a burrow in the ground. During the very cold days in the winter the skunk stays at home; at this time it lives off the layers of fat it acquired in the fall, but it does not hibernate.
Before the winters snows melt, the male skunks travel far and wide to pay their respects to the females, which remain comfortably at home. Two suitors may fight bitterly for the possession of a female; they may even use their spray as a weapon in these fights. The mating season lasts through February and March.
Some fifty days after mating, the young are born -- there are four to eight of them, without sight or furry coats. The mother can nurse six babies at once; if there are more, they must wait their turn. The babies open their eyes when three weeks old, and fourteen days later they are out following their mother in single file. At the age of two months they are weaned, and depend on their own resources in early fall.
A young skunk is easy to capture and soon learns to be tame. The scent glands can be removed and thereafter the animal generally is an ideal pet, docile and loving. It will, incidentally, keep a house free of rodents.
The striped skunk is at home in Canada, the United States, and as far south as Honduras. About the size of a house cat, it stands seven inches at the shoulder, and is roughly eighteen inches long, with a seven-inch tail.
Full grown, the animal may weigh from four to ten pounds. On its glossy coat of long, limp hair, two broad white lines (united on the head) run backward down the sides of the body to the tip of the bushy tail. The face has a single stripe from the forehead to the middle of the nose. However, the amount of white varies with the animal, some skunks being almost completely black: a fair number of subspecies have been named.
Check out the great selection of skunk stuffed animals that can be found at our sponsor's online gift shop. The image above shows: Odie the Puffkin skunk stuffed animal, a tiny little Skunk Keychain from Stuffed Animal House, Stinky the Skunk Beanie Baby, Baby Squirt from Purr-Fection by MJC; and there is a Webkinz Skunk by Ganz. We also show a little Ganz Mini Glass Skunk Figurine. The Pink Skunk is from Wild Republic. There is also a Skunk with sound from Ganz and a Mini Cuddlekins Skunk from Wild Republic and a Skunk plush toy from Wildlife Artists.
Kingdom: Animalia | Phylum: Chordata | Class: Mammalia | Order: Carnivora | Family: Mephitidae
