Most of us have seen a skunk at one time or another. Skunks can even live in towns where they dig in lawns for worms and grubs (short, fat, worm-like creatures) and eat the dog's food or dig in the garbage. Skunks have a smell that is pretty strong even when they have not been scared and sprayed. The smell is called "musk" and has an odor all its own.
Skunks are called "omnivorous" (om-niv-or-us) because they eat both plants and animals. They eat berries, seeds, insects, spiders, grubs, mice, eggs, and any small animal they can catch. Skunks make a home in dens which are usually a small hole in the ground made by the skunk or another animal. They will also live in hollow logs, under a pile of brush, or in barns and small outbuildings. Sometimes they will burrow under a house that people live in! Skunks sleep during the day and come out at night to hunt and find food.
The skunk is a very brave animal and will not run away from danger. This is because the skunk has a secret weapon: beneath its bushy tail are scent glands that can spray horrid smelling stuff that burns the eyes and chokes the nose and throat of anything that gets sprayed. This stinky stuff does not do harm, but it is very hard to get the smell off and anything that gets sprayed goes around smelling like a skunk for days. So it is wise to give a skunk plenty of room. If it starts bouncing around and standing on its front legs, it is time to get away fast! Some animals, like deer, can run very fast to escape danger. Others, like rabbits, have colors that blend into the things around them, this is called camouflage, so that they are hidden and that is how they escape danger. Skunks have a counter-camouflage. They are vividly black and white and animals learn fast that black and white means: "Stinky! Stay far away!"
One time when I was a kid my older brother and I were out roaming around in the woods and fields exploring. We were in an overgrown grassy field when we saw the grass moving a little way from us. We just had to find out what kind of animal was making the grass move, so we walked over to see. That was a big mistake! The grass was moving because we had scared a skunk and it was bouncing around warning us to stay away. The grass was too tall for us to ever see the skunk, but we smelled it when it sprayed. Suddenly our eyes began to burn and water, our noses were filled with the stink of skunk and began to burn, and our throats burned so badly that all we could do was choke and cough!
When we could see and talk again (the skunk had wandered off after paying us back for scaring it) we were very surprised, because neither of us could smell anything at all. We knew that we had been sprayed by the skunk and had to stink, but we couldn't smell skunk! I sniffed my brother's shirt and he sniffed mine...nope, we couldn't smell a thing. Now, my brother and I were kind of rascals and this was too good to keep to ourselves, so we headed home to see what would happen when we came into the house smelling like stinky skunks. (Don't ever do this to your mother if you get sprayed, okay?) We walked into the house where our older sister was sitting reading a book. No sooner had we entered the room than she let out a shriek: "Yuk! Get out! Mom...they got sprayed by a skunk and won't get out!" Well, the truth is we were laughing too hard to move!
Our Mom came and hustled us out of the house and straight into a tomato juice bath. Tomato juice is what was used in those days to get rid of some of the skunk smell. We had to bury our clothes, and after all that we still smelled like skunks for a long time. Nobody liked to be close to us because we stank! Good thing it was summer vacation and we didn't have to go to school smelling the way we did. We thought it was pretty funny, but after that we were careful to stay far away from skunks.
Skunks are good animals because they eat lots of bugs and mice that can do damage in the garden and around the yard. But if you see a skunk, watch it from a distance and if it starts standing on its front legs, run away fast.
