Striped skunk

The striped skunk is a skunk of the genus Mephitis that occurs across much of North America, including southern Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. It is currently listed as least concern by the IUCN on account of its wide range and ability to adapt to human-modified environments.
Striped skunks are polygamous omnivores with few natural predators, save for birds of prey. Like all skunks, they possess highly developed musk-filled scent glands to ward off predators. They have a long history of association with humans, having been trapped and captively bred for their fur and kept as pets. The striped skunk is one of the most recognizable of North America's animals, and is a popular figure in cartoons and children's books.

Taxonomy

The striped skunk was first formally named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber as Viverra mephitis. The type locality is in eastern Canada.

Evolution and subspecies

The earliest fossil finds attributable to Mephitis were found in the Broadwater site in Nebraska, dating back to the early Pleistocene less than 1.8 million years ago. By the late Pleistocene, the striped skunk was widely distributed throughout the southern United States, and it expanded northwards and westwards by the Holocene following the retreat of the Wisconsin glacier.
Phylogenetic analyses of the species' cytochrome b gene and microsatellite data in 2012 indicated that there are four phylogroups of striped skunk. The first emerged from the Texas-Mexico region during the Rancholabrean before the Illinoian glaciation and colonized the southeastern United States. The second, still originating in the Texas-Mexico region, expanded westwards to the Rocky Mountains during the Illinoian glacial period. Two subsequent subclades were formed during the Sangamonian interglacial on either side of the Sierra Nevada. The subclade that colonized the Great Basin later expanded eastwards across the northern Rocky Mountains during the Holocene, recolonising the Great Plains and making contact with the southern phylogroup. A similar, but less significant, secondary contact occurred when the same subclade intermingled with members of the eastern phylogroup east of the Mississippi river.
Thirteen subspecies of the striped skunk are generally recognized:

Subspecies	Skin	Skull	Trinomial authority	Description	Range	Synonyms
Canada skunk M. m. mephitis			Schreber, 1776	A large subspecies with a short and slender tail and a mixed black and white coat with constant markings.	Eastern Canada; Nova Scotia, Quebec, and northern Ontario.	M. americana, chinche, mephitica, vulgaris
Illinois skunk M. m. avia			Bangs, 1898	Similar to M. m. mesomelas, but with a slightly larger skull.	Prairie region of Illinois, western Indiana, and eastern Iowa.	newtonensis Brown, 1908
Florida skunk M. m. elongata			Bangs, 1895	A medium-sized subspecies with a very long tail. The white markings are usually very broad.	Florida to North Carolina, and in the mountains to West Virginia; west on the Gulf coast to the Mississippi River.
Arizona skunk M. m. estor			Merriam, 1890	A small subspecies resembling M. m. varians, but with a shorter tail and smaller skull. The white markings are particularly broad along the back and tail.	Arizona, western New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, and northern Lower California; south in the Sierra Madre to southern Chihuahua.
Southern California skunk M. m. holzneri			Mearns, 1898	Similar to M. m. occidentalis, but smaller.	Southern California, from vicinity of Monterey Bay south into Lower California; east to the Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Range.
Northern plains skunk M. m. hudsonica			Richardson, 1829	A very large subspecies with a heavily furred, medium-sized tail.	Western Canada, from Manitoba to British Columbia; south in the United States to Colorado, Nebraska, and Minnesota.	americana, chinga, minnesotoe
Great Basin skunk M. m. major			Howell, 1901	Probably the largest subspecies, similar to M. m. occidentalis, but with longer hind feet and a heavier skull.	Eastern Oregon, northern California, and Nevada; east to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.
Louisiana skunk M. m. mesomelas			Lichtenstein, 1832	A very small, short-tailed subspecies.	West side of Mississippi Valley from southern Louisiana to Missouri; westward along the coast of Texas to Matagorda Island; and up the Red River Valley as far at least as Wichita Falls.	mesomeles, scrutator
Eastern skunk M. m. nigra			Peale and Palisot de Beauvois, 1796	A medium-sized subspecies, with a longer tail than that of M. m. mephitis.	New England and Middle Atlantic States; south to Virginia; west to Indiana.	bivirgata, dentata, fetidissima, frontata, olida, putida
Cascade Mountains skunk M. m. notata			Hall, 1936	Similar to M. m. occidentalis, but with a shorter tail, heavier skull, and narrower stripes.	Southern Washington and northern Oregon, east of the Cascade Mountains.
California skunk M. m. occidentalis			Baird, 1858	A large subspecies resembling M. m. hudsonica, but with a longer tail and narrower skull.	Northern and central California, from the vicinity of Monterey Bay northward, west of the Sierra and Cascades, to the Willamette Valley, Oregon.	notata, platyrhina
Puget Sound skunk M. m. spissigrada			Bangs, 1898	Similar to M. m. occidentalis, but with a shorter tail and more white on the body and tail.	Shores of Puget Sound and coastal region of Washington and northern Oregon.	foetulenta
Texas long-tailed skunk M. m. varians			Gray, 1837	A large, very long-tailed subspecies whose markings closely approach those of M. m. hudsonica.	Southern and western Texas, eastern New Mexico, and adjacent parts of Mexico; north into Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.	texana

Vernacular names

The English word skunk has two root words of Algonquian and Iroquoian origin, specifically seganku and scangaresse. The Cree and Ojibwe word shee-gawk is the root word for Chicago, which means 'skunk-land'. Alternative English names for the striped skunk include common skunk, Hudsonian skunk, northern skunk, black-tailed skunk and prairie polecat. The latter name was originally used by English settlers, who noted the animal's similarity to the European polecat. This association likely resulted in the striped skunk's subsequent unfavorable reputation as a poultry thief, despite it being a much less destructive animal than the true polecat. The name "Alaska sable" was employed by furriers during the late 19th century.
Local indigenous names include:

Linguistic group or area	Indigenous name
Abenaki	segôgw
Chipewyan	nool'-tsee-a
Plains Cree	sikâk ᓯᑳᐠ
Swampy, Moose, and James Bay Cree	šikâkw/shikaakw ᔑᑳᒄ
Lenape	shkakw
Menominee	sekāk
Meskwaki-Sauk-Kickapoo, Shawnee	shekâkwa
‌ Mi'kmaq	apikjilu
Ojibwe	zhigaag / zhgaagoo
Potawatomi	shegak
Tŝilhqot'in	guli
Huron	scangaresse
Ogallala Sioux	mah-kah
Yankton Sioux	mah-cah

Description

The striped skunk is a stoutly-built, short-limbed animal with a small, conical head and a long, heavily furred tail. Adult males are 10% larger than females, with both sexes measuring between in total body length and usually weighing, though some may weigh. The feet are plantigrade with bare soles, and are not as broad or flat as those of hog-nosed skunks. The forefeet are armed with five long, curved claws adapted for digging, while those on the hind feet are shorter and straighter.
The color patterns of the fur vary greatly, but generally consist of a black base with a white stripe extending from the head which divides along the shoulders, continuing along the flanks to the rump and tail. Some specimens have a white patch on the chest, while others bear white stripes on the outer surface of the front limbs. Brown or cream-colored mutations occasionally occur.
Like all skunks, the striped skunk possesses two highly developed scent glands, one on each side of the anus, containing about 15 milliliters of musk each, which provides a chemical defense against predation. This oily, yellow-colored musk consists of a mixture of powerfully odorous thiols, which can be sprayed at a distance of several meters. The odor of this musk was likened by Ernest Thompson Seton to a mixture of perfume musk, essence of garlic, burning sulfur and sewer gas "magnified a thousand times", though Clinton Hart Merriam claimed that it is not "one tenth" as offensive as that produced by minks and weasels. If sprayed on the eyes, this compound can cause a temporary burning sensation.