Identification

Weight: 2.5-7.5Ibs.
Diet: Like the raccoon they are true omnivores. They will eat almost anything they can get in their mouth. They are known to love grubs. They will also eat bird seed.
Habitat: They like to live along the edges of forests/fields, woods and streams. They have adapted very well to suburban environments.
Activity: Nocturnal/will den up for a few weeks at a time during extremely cold winter conditions.
Procreation: Mating occurs between February and March with young being born about two months later. Litter sizes vary from 2-10 young. In my experience, the range is typically 3-5 young. The father does not stay and assist in raising the young.
Symptoms: Fewer things are more known than the skunk's odor. Typically clients will complain about the odor and it is their distaste for the smell that motivates them to call you. Understand however, that the odor can linger for days. Also the discharge site may not even be on the property. These odors will normally occur during mating season (Jan-Feb) when the female sprays a male she doesn't wish to mate with and in June, when the young skunks begin practicing.
Signs: Avg. Hole Size: 3-5 inches in diameter. Juvenile skunks will make even smaller holes, often 1-2 inches in size under a shed wall.

Damage and Damage Identification

Damage to house: Skunks don't damage buildings structurally. They just change the smell of the place. If a homeowner, whose house has a full poured concrete basement, swears that a skunk has entered their basement, check to see if they have window wells. Chances are a skunk has fallen into it and can't get out (see photo on previous page). Chances are a skunk has fallen into it and can't get out. You also may not always see the skunk. If they can, they will actually dig a den hole in the window well, thus allowing you only to see a hole. So look carefully. If a skunk is trapped inside a garage, look for damage to items up to one foot high on the wall. In crawl spaces they will shred insulation if they can reach it i.e. within two feet. They also like to chew heat tape wire especially when they are trapped.

Damage to lawn/garden: Skunks will eat grubs and raccoons do too. When skunks are grubbing, you will find little holes in the turf. The holes will be a few inches apart. Skunks will grub a lawn very systematically, one section at a time. On one job the skunks were digging around the heads of an automatic sprinkler system.

Feces: For practical purposes this sign is pretty weak. Chances are you won't find any and if you do it will look very much like a cat's except for the content. (See photo of droppings located in the lower left portion of the image). Feces are a great sign of a skunk being trapped in a building.

Tracks: Left print is the front foot, right print is the rear foot. Line drawings courtesy of Kim A. Cabrera of Bear tracker's Animal Tracks Den, ). Prints are not to scale.