WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSAL PET HOME

 About Skunks

AS TRAVIS QUIRK tells it, not everything is black and white when it comes to skunks. One example: You have to work hard to get a skunk to cut loose with its pungent spray. Quirk should know. A rara avis among mammalogists, he's studied the familiar striped skunk over the past four years near Manitoba's fabled Delta Marsh. And while he has handled hundreds of wild and captive skunks, Quirk has been doused only a few times.

"They're quite timid creatures and they would rather run and hide," says the University of Saskatchewan graduate student. "Most of the time if you stand still, they'll go away. Moreover, they go through some predictable routines to warn you off before they spray." First, he relates, a skunk does a "handstand" with its tail erect. Next, it stomps its feet--loudly. If this doesn't work, the animal scratches the ground and shuffles backward.

"If you're still perceived as a threat," Quirk continues, "a skunk may charge. But it's only a bluff." The animal usually will stop 5 or 6 feet away and do the stomping and scratching bit again to encourage you to retreat. As a last measure, it will twist its body into a U-shape so the anus is pointed at the intruder. "That's where the spray comes from and this is your last chance to back off. Fast!"

Not surprisingly, working with such malodorous mammals wasn't in Quirk's plans when he was an undergraduate. But when a friend backed out of a research assistant's job on another skunk study because nighttime fieldwork made her claustrophobic, he volunteered to take her place. And Mephitus mephitus, aka the stinking polecat, has been a big part of his life ever since. 

Read more about Skunks...