Encounters With Skunks

     The first striped skunk I ever saw in the flesh and wild was when I was about 12 years old and living outside Rohrerstown, Pennsylvania.  One sunny summer evening, I climbed a small tree in a hedgerow of trees and other plants along a stream in farmland close to home to be on the lookout for wildlife.  I wasn't there long until I saw a male indigo bunting and a pair of northern cardinals flitting about in shrubbery.  Then, suddenly, a lone gray fox trotted under the tree I was in and was away quickly into nearby shrubbery.  A few minutes later a striped skunk meandered under the tree and waddled off under the bushes close at hand.  Looking back, that was a thrilling evening for me!
     I have seen other striped skunks in Lancaster County through the years since that time, and all of them have been exciting to experience.  Fortunately, I never got sprayed by any of them.
     I saw one walking through woods in daylight outside Mt. Gretna.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't see it until I was fairly close.  Luckily, however, the skunk didn't seem to notice, or care, about my presence and just ambled on.  
     When I lived in Neffsville, Pa. a skunk had the habit of visiting one of our trash cans each evening for a few weeks to eat edible garbage.  When I realized the pattern of this critter, I sat in my car most every evening and waited for it to come to the can.  I was in the car to not scare away the skunk and also for my own protection.  When the skunk arrived, I turned on the car headlights to see him better.  He wiggled into a hole in the can, then came out with a tidbit to ingest.  Then back in he went, and again and again.  He continued when I went into the house.  But that skunk was quite entertaining!    
     We had another skunk living in our back yard in Neffsville, but we didn't know it until a heavy thunderstorm one afternoon.  I had a brush pile of yard clippings in a ditch on the edge of our lawn.  After the heavy rain that afternoon, a torrent of water rushed along the ditch and into the brush pile.  I watched that pile, in hopes of seeing creatures coming out of it.  Sure enough, an opossum came out and went up a pine tree, and a skunk emerged from that pile and waddled across the lawn and gone.
     A third skunk in our Neffsville yard I heard first.  I walked out on our lawn one late night in October to get a little fresh air and heard nearby thumping.  Thinking the thumping might be from a skunk, I went in the house for a flashlight and saw the skunk, by the light of that flashlight, digging up grubs from the lawn.
     One morning in February a few years ago, I saw a skunk bumbling along the edge of a hedgerow.  That time of year is their breeding season and I thought the skunk might have been a male looking for a mate or two. 
     Several years ago, I helped lead van tours, one per season, in Lancaster County Central Park to see wildlife at night.  We saw several white-tailed deer, a few cottontail rabbits, and an occasional red fox, raccoon, opossum or skunk.  Some of those animals were close to the van which offered the passengers good looks of them. 
     In more recent years, I occasionally travel across cropland at night between New Holland and Ephrata, and I have seen three skunks here and there along the farmland roads I drove on.  All the skunks were digging into roadside shoulders in search of mice, invertebrates, berries and other edibles.  I drove by them slowly to see them better, and to not hit them with my car.
     And last summer we had two skunks on our lawn in New Holland.  One of them sprayed our Jack Russell terrior while that fiesty little dog was in the process of killing the skunk.
     Striped skunks are adaptable and live in a variety of habitats in Pennsylvania, including in farmland, lawns and woods.  They shelter in groundhog holes, stone walls, brush piles and in and under fallen logs.  But they also hang out in barns and under sheds.  And they will eat most anything, anywhere.  Skunks spray a smelly musk on other animals and people when they are alarmed.  And rather than being brown or gray which would camouflage them, they are black with white stripes, though those stripes vary in size.  That black and white-striped pattern on skunks will be remembered by animals sprayed by skunks.  And those animals will stay away from the next black and white-striped creatures they see.  That pattern on skunks is a defense.
     Skunks are interesting critters, but ones to stay away from.  They are adaptable and live commonly throughout much of North America.  They don't want trouble, but will defend themselves when they have to.