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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 skunk).
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 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 ...
The southern spotted skunk grows to a length of 34 cm (13 in) with a tail length of 23 cm (9.1 in) and weighs between 0.5 and 1 kilogram (1.1 and 2.2 lb). It is conspicuously coloured in black and white and resembles the western spotted skunk in appearance.
This likeness has led to the use in some places of the appropriate name "badger skunk" for these animals. The extent of the stripe on the hind of the skunk, and the color of the tail underside suggests a distinction between eastern and western species. The eastern species is a narrow stripe, with black under the base of the tail.
The hair on the tail is mostly black, but is white at the tip, and sometimes also on the upper surface. The claws on the fore-feet are longer, and more curved, than those on the hind feet. [3] The western spotted skunk's unique black and white pattern of spots and stripes and its small size differentiate them from regular striped skunks. [5]
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.
Hog-nosed skunk. The distinguishing feature of the American hog-nosed skunk is it has a single, broad white stripe from the top of the head to the base of the tail, with the tail itself being completely white. It is the only skunk that lacks a white dot or medial bar between the eyes and has primarily black body fur.