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Back left foot of an albino skunk. Although the most common fur color is black and white, some skunks are brown or grey and a few are cream-colored. All skunks are striped, even from birth. They may have a single thick stripe across the back and tail, two thinner stripes, or a series of white spots and broken stripes (in the case of the spotted ...
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 (70,000–14,500 years ago), the striped skunk was widely distributed throughout the southern United States, and it expanded northwards and westwards by the Holocene (10,000–4,500 years ago) following ...
Most mephitids are 20–50 cm (8–20 in) long, plus a 10–40 cm (4–16 in) tail, though the pygmy spotted skunk can be as small as 11 cm (4 in) plus a 7 cm (3 in) tail, and some striped skunks can be up to 82 cm (32 in) plus a 40 cm (16 in) tail.
The eastern spotted skunk is a very small skunk, no larger than a good-sized tree squirrel. [3] [4] Its body is more weasel-like in shape than the more familiar striped skunk. The eastern spotted skunk has four broken stripes on its back, [3] giving it a "spotted" appearance. It has a white spot on its forehead.
Western spotted skunks have wider white stripes on their backs and a white-tipped tail. They are small, weighing only 14 ounces to 2 pounds. When they feel threatened, they don't hide.
With a total length of 35–45 cm (14–18 in), the western spotted skunk is smaller than the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis).Males, which weigh 336 to 734 g (11.9 to 25.9 oz), are significantly heavier than females, at 227 to 482 g (8.0 to 17.0 oz), but only about 6% longer, on average.
The diet of the hooded skunk consists mostly of vegetation, especially prickly pear (Opuntia spp.), but it will readily consume insects, small vertebrates, fruit, bird eggs, and human garbage as well. [4] [8] Hooded skunks in Costa Rica utilize their forelimbs to throw bird eggs between their hindlegs, in order to break the eggs open. [8]
The striped hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus semistriatus) is a skunk species from Central and South America (from southern Mexico [3] [4] to northern Peru, and in the extreme east of Brazil). This species of skunk is considered a generalist species, because they are able to thrive in, and withstand, disturbed environmental conditions.