After mating, male skunks have little to do with the protection, feeding and rearing of young skunks. Rearing litters of kittens is entirely up to the female. Mother skunks will rear their litters in their dens.
Although skunks are not generally aggressive animals, they will become aggressive if they feel their litters are in danger, and will spray anything they see as a threat. Skunks give warning signs before spraying like stamping their front feet, raising their tail, hissing, and forward charges. The most prevalent warning of a skunk that's about to let loose is twisting its hind end in the direction of whom or what it is threatening to spray.
Updated July 25, Related Articles Life Cycle of a Deer. How Do Elephants Mate? Facts About Baby Wolves. Differences Between Ferrets, Stoats and Weasels. How Do Alligators Mate? Diet: Skunks are omnivores but prefer to eat plants, veggies, fruits, insects, grubs, small animals and eggs as well as anything left in accessible garbage cans.
For the "do-it-yourselfer", performing wildlife removal and animal proofing can be a dangerous undertaking and best be left to an experienced professional. Over the years we have come across customers who attempted to do-it-themselves, only to sustain serious bodily harm by falling off ladders and roofs.
One customer, startled by an aggressive mother raccoon fell through their ceiling onto the staircase below and broke his back. More About Skunks Skunk Facts. Humanely Remove Skunks. Skunk Problems. Skunk FAQs. Do It Yourself Dangers For the "do-it-yourselfer", performing wildlife removal and animal proofing can be a dangerous undertaking and best be left to an experienced professional.
In a typical population of skunks the great majority of the females will be pregnant or will have just had litters.
Typically a litter consists of four to seven pups. One male may breed several females. After mating, female skunks disperse from the winter den to a separate maternal den. Grass is usually gathered and brought into the maternal den for bedding. The young are blind and deaf at birth with short, fine fur. Adult male skunks do not take part in rearing offspring.
The young are nursed in the den for about six weeks before joining their mother on trips outside the den. By this time they are miniature replicas of adults.
The young are weaned by about two months of age. The family group breaks up in the fall and the young move to new territory. They generally travel about six to 10 km in search of a new home; however, extremes of up to 50 km have been recorded. Skunks can be very smelly, especially from the mating season through the whelping season, if the female fights off a male. If the smell seems to come and go, and is more noticeable at dawn or dusk, or with a shift in wind direction, or seems to be coming from an area with evergreen trees, it might be the odour of a great horned owl.
These owls commonly eat skunks. It is more likely you will smell a skunk than see one. Persistent, faint musk smells under a building or woodpile may suggest that a skunk has taken up residence. You may find small, shallow holes in the lawn, similar to those made by squirrels, which are a result of a skunk foraging for grubs and insect larva. You may also find plants knocked over or damage to the lower leaves or ears of ripening garden crops, including corn.
You should look for other clues as well because foxes also have their own musky scent that may cause misidentification. Occasionally a skunk will wander into an open garage or shed, a compelling reason to secure all outbuildings.
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