Nature Study: Skunk
By Danielle Ihle
Hearing scratches against the wooden porch, and footsteps across the small stones, intrigued my curiosity to see what was wondering in my backyard. The noises only occurred after dusk, and I couldn’t understand why I heard the noise but I didn’t see anything. This noise petrified me, because I had no idea what was in my backyard. My curiosity and wonder all came to an end one summer night when I pulled up into my driveway. I saw movement out of the corner of my right eye, so I quickly got out of my car and looked in that direction. I focused on the animal that was frozen still near my trap door. I did not run or walk away; I stayed still, just like the animal did. Needless to say, I was stunned to see what was looking back at me. It was a creature that I never took interest in, and always turned my nose away from. It was a big black and white striped skunk.
The skunk was still sitting there after several minutes, so I decided to try and get a better look. Taking small quiet steps, I inched up a little closer to my porch. While doing this, I was constantly thinking about their defense mechanism, so startling or frightening the skunk was the last thing I wanted to do. It appeared to have long black hair with two strips of white going down either side of its body, extending a little onto his tail. The tail was extremely large and bushy with the majority of the hair being black. The head appeared to be considerably small for the size of its body. It started off wide towards its eyes and got very narrow reaching its mouth. There was a white strip located in-between its eyes which stopped at what appeared to be its nose. This skunk had four particularly short legs and small triangular shaped ears. The size of its body was comparable to that of a chubby cat. It had a wide-bodied frame, but did not appear to be more than 7 lbs. The skunk at they point sensed my presence and scurried right underneath my porch. I think I might have scared it when I accidentally coughed. This made me wonder how long the skunk has being using the underneath of my porch as its home for. That was a little unnerving, because I did not want to be greeted with its odor when opening by back door someday.
The morning after was quite interesting. I looked over towards my garbage and was not happy with what I had found. All of my garbage was everywhere but in the bag. I assumed that the skunk had gotten into the garage throughout the night, probably as a source for food. When I walked down the stairs towards the garbage cans my assumptions were proven true. In one small muddy patch, I found footprints. I know these were the footprints of the skunk because of the research I did the previous night. A read a couple documents about skunks which included a description of their footprints. The footprints in the mud had one good imprint of its front and hind paws. The front paw resembled that of a small bear with imprints of nails above the five pads. The hind paw resembled that a baby footprint with imprints of nails above the toes. The prints were close together instead of spread apart like I assumed they would be. That might explain why they look like they waddle when they walk. Besides that, from looking at the scattered garbage, the skunk ripped open the bag of dog food I had put in there, and left pieces trailing under the porch. It also had interest in the egg shells I had thrown into a cup. The cup was shredded and there were pieces of the egg shells scattered throughout the drive way.
A couple nights had past where there was no sight of the skunk. Several nights after, I had a few friends over and we sat on the back porch talking and enjoying dessert. When all of a sudden one of my friends points over towards the fence and shouts, "Look at that skunk, its walking alongside the fence." I quickly turned towards the fence and saw the skunk digging in the ground. It would dig and move, dig and move. I did not know what it was digging for, but I did notice that it was slow moving. It walked slowly along side the fence and then disappeared into the neighbor’s yard. I am pretty sure we startled it because of all noise we were making, and luckily it did not spray its obnoxious odor.
A couple days later, one of the neighbors contacted me and told me that traps were going to be set because they have spotted a skunk in the area, and to be aware when in the backyard. I felt so bad for this skunk, because it really wasn’t bothering anybody; it was just trying to find a good safe place to live. I had kept my eye on the cage to see if there was any activity and unfortunately there was. The skunk was in the trap and appeared to be unharmed. I didn’t want to contact the people who were in charge of the trap because I didn’t want the skunk to be in danger. Unfortunately, when I came home from school that following afternoon the trap and skunk were gone. Somebody had come and picked it up. From this day, I am unsure of the fate of the skunk, and have not seen one in my area since.
I have learned that some people do not appreciate wild animals. They need to live and make a place a home just as much as people do. When they are caught in traps because they are an inconvenience in people’s lives, just think of how people are an inconvenience to the animals’ lives. When skunks are caught in traps they are most likely gased, shot or drowned. When you think of that, it might change your prospective of wild animals, and let them be. This experience changed my prospective on wild animals.