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Nosing Around One of Our Outdoor Neighbors
• There’s More to Skunks than
the Smell
Every Malibuite knows it—a terrible
combination of burnt rubber, rotten eggs and musk that can be
smelled a mile downwind. It can wake a person from a sound
sleep, and fills dog owners with a sense of dread. Skunks are
active throughout the year in Malibu’s mild coastal
climate, but they are more evident in spring, when mating and
breeding activities bring them into closer contact with humans,
cars and unfortunately, domestic animals. Familiar as the
smell may be, the skunk itself is rarely seen, and is the
subject of myths and misinformation.
There are actually two types of skunks in
the Malibu area. The striped skunk is the common variety. About
the size of a small cat, this skunk has the distinctive white
stripe that it uses as a warning flag for predators. Residents
of the Santa Monica Mountains may also encounter the spotted
skunk. Shy, secretive and rarely seen, the spotted skunk is
smaller, slighter and more agile than its striped cousin, with
a spotted or splotched coat. Armed with the same sulfur-based
protective spray, both animals used to be classed as
mustelidae, members of the weasel family, but have recently
been moved to their own family, mephitidae. Intelligent and
resourceful, skunks are adapting to life in an increasingly
urban environment.
According to Share Bond, an expert on skunk
rescue and rehabilitation and the author of “Stinky
Business: How to Rehabilitate Skunks,” skunks have
an undeserved bad reputation mostly due to that powerful
chemical weapon, but also due to the misconception that
they carry rabies. Skunks, she says, like raccoons, bats and
other wild animals, can be infected with rabies, but cases are
rare in California, and skunks are no more likely to carry the
disease than any other animal. She states that skunks are
quiet, well behaved, and even beneficial neighbors, as long as
humans are willing to take a few steps.
Crepuscular animals that prefer to be
active at dawn and dusk, skunks will sometimes venture out
during the day, especially when food is available.
Orphaned skunks can also be out during the day, searching
for their mother. Skunks are voracious omnivores and
eat many types of garden pests, including slugs, snails,
beetles, grasshoppers, wasps, bees, grubs and even small
rodents such as mice. According to Bond, a hungry
skunk will even eat a gopher or a young rattlesnake.
Unfortunately, skunks also have a taste for
fruit, pet food and garbage. Bond states emphatically that the
best way to minimize contact with skunks is to make sure they
don’t have access to any of these things. She recommends
feeding pets indoors, making sure that garbage containers are
securely closed, and that fruit from garden trees isn’t
allowed to rot on the ground. The other way to prevent skunk
problems, she says, is to seal openings under houses and
outbuildings—favorite skunk nesting places—after
making sure skunks are being shut out, not in. “And
don’t forget to secure the pet door at night.” She
says that skunks are intelligent and can quickly figure out how
to use a pet door. “Anything a human can push open with
one hand a skunk can also manage to open,” she states.
Gregg Feingold of the California Wildlife
Center in Malibu concurs with this advice. He says most of the
calls the center receives about skunks involve the animals
taking up residence under decks and houses. He adds the more
draconian suggestion of special fencing that can be installed
to extend six to eight inches underground, preventing skunks
and other wild animals from ever even entering a yard, but he
also stresses that skunks are generally beneficial animals. The
staff at CWC can offer advice on skunks, however, they are not
equipped to handle them, for that they turn to someone like
Brenda Varvarigos.
Varvarigos is a licensed wild animal
rehabilitator who is often called in to rescue skunks in the
Malibu area. She is one of very few rehabilitators who will
take injured adult skunks. She reiterates the advice about
sealing access to spaces under buildings and decks to avoid
conflict with skunks. All three wildlife experts are adamantly
opposed to trapping skunks. They say it doesn’t solve the
problem—more skunks will simply move in. Varvarigos also
makes a special plea against using poison. Among the animals
she rehabilitates are raptors who eat poisoned mammals. She has
seen a tragic increase in poison fatalities in recent years.
“I see it a lot. It’s very, very sad,” she
says.
“Skunks don’t have many
predators.” Varvarigos says. The great horned owl is an
exception. The smell doesn’t bother the owl, and skunk is
a favorite food. According to Varvarigos, other raptors like
hawks will also sometimes prey on skunks, although they can be
temporarily blinded and disoriented by the skunk’s spray.
“Cars are really a skunk’s worst enemy. Skunks have
very poor vision,” Varvarigos says. “They
don’t see oncoming cars.”
Most predators, Varvarigos states, quickly
learn to avoid that distinctive black and white tail, but dogs
seem to find skunks utterly irresistible—as many of us
know to our sorrow—although the skunk’s scent
weapon causes excruciating pain to the dog’s sensitive
nose and eyes. Bond recommends always taking dogs out on a
leash after dark, even in the backyard, and not allowing them
to poke their noses out of sight into shrubs or brush.
Varvarigos suggests making plenty of noise to help warn off
skunks. “They aren’t nasty, they won’t
attack, their scent is their only defense.” She adds that
skunks prefer to avoid confrontation.
“Skunks don’t spray for no
reason,” Bond says. “What people fear, they create.
Don’t scream if you see a skunk. Be quiet, slow,
non-threatening and move away.” Bond has been rescuing
skunks for 18 years and has never yet been sprayed. “It
takes a lot to get them to spray,” confirms Varvarigos.
“The skunk will stamp its feet and growl—it’s
almost a kind of dance—before spraying.”
If the family dog ignores that warning,
Bond recommends distilled vinegar rather than the traditional
tomato juice to neutralize the skunk odor, followed by Dawn
brand dish soap, and then shampoo and conditioner. Skunk spray,
she says, is oily and can’t be washed off with plain
water. She also recommends the use of a negative ion generating
air filter to clean skunk-tainted air in the house.
Charles Darwin recorded catching a whiff of
skunk in 1833 in “The Voyage of the Beagle.” He
wrote, “Every animal most willingly makes room for the
zorillo [skunk].” Every animal, maybe, except the dog.
But with a little bit of work there really can be room for the
skunk.
Brenda Varvarigos can be reached at
818.346.8247 or www.valleywildlifecare.org and will assist with
Malibu area skunk rescues. Share Bond has an informative skunk
site, www.stinkybusiness.org/, and a skunk hotline:
661.264.4400. The California Wildlife Center isn’t
licensed to care for skunks, but can offer advice on how to
coexist with them: www.californiawildlifecenter.org
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