- Skunks hate the smell of skunk oil.
A stinky skunk is unmistakable and that’s what makes them famous. Do you know the following fun facts about the skunk?
Skunks stung by bees aren’t usually hurt. They kill the bees by rubbing them between their two front paws.
Skunks, especially spotted skunks, eat other types of food. They like bird eggs,
worms, snails, clams, frogs, mice, lizards, and young rabbits.
Skunks like to eat salads of fresh grass, leaves, fruits, and nuts, when in season.
Skunks can hear better than they can see.
For a skunk, smell is their strongest sense. They can even smell insects when they are underground.
Skunks sneeze a lot, which helps them clear their noses and smell easier and better.
Skunks squeal if hurt and hiss if mad.
Baby skunks are called kits.
Skunks, especially kits, sometimes grunt, growl or snarl.
Skunks look in the eye of the enemy and try to make themselves look bigger and scarier by arching their backs and holding up their tail.
Some skunks, like spotted skunks, may do a “handstand,” and then wal on the front feet with their tails held high in the air. Spotted skunks can walk this way for many feet.
Skunks hate the smell of skunk oil.
The oil comes from small glands that produce the stinky white or yellowish oil.
Skunks spray contains less than half a teaspoon of oil.
A skunk can usually fire up to eight times before its glands need a few days to refill.
The smell of skunks oil is enough to make other animals, or humans, sick.
Mines use a mixture of the oil and chemicals for emergencies, to warn workers of danger when they are using loud machinery and cannot hear. If they smell it, they are to drop what they’re doing and rush to safety.
Kits cannot survive without their mother, yet never meet their father.
Skunk babies are often born in May and come in different sizes.
Skunks usually give birth to five to seven kits at once, while hog-nosed skunks give birth to one to four.
Some skunks have just one litter a year whereas striped and spotted skunks may have two.
Mother skunks provide milk to their babies to help them grow big and strong.
By to to four weeks, kits are wearing furry coats and can open their eyes, By six weeks, they’re scrambling around and playing.
Baby skunks eat whatever food is fed to them.
Kits slowly learn to get their own food, grazing on grass and berries, practicing digging up worms and pouncing on insects and mice and watching Mama Skunk as she catches small fish out of the rushing water with her paws.
By the time summer ends, kits are usually as big as their mother. In the Fall, they leave to live on their own, usually up to ten years.
Weird things skunks do:
-before eating a fuzzy caterpillar, a skunk might roll it around on the ground to get rid of the hair.
-roll up sections of the lawn to dig for insects in the soil under the grass.
-treat a car as their enemy, and spray it.
-when they-re striped, is swim for up to seven hours at a time.
How fun are these skunk fun facts? Do you want to see more animal fun facts like this?
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