posted 2 years ago
I live in the Carson National Forest in Northern New Mexico, a small rural village with abundant wildlife interactions. For the past few years there has been a surge in the skunk population. Neighbors are bent on re-locating and killing the little critters, only to have "new" skunks take up the slack. Problem with continual skunk "turnover" is the spraying. Skunks are by nature shy, nocturnal creatures. Three years ago a mama took up residence under my bunkhouse floor. Not certain whether the dogs were thrilled or horrified, but multiple spray events followed. Mama Stinky-Pants had 8 babies that spring! I noticed that as dogs and skunks came to terms with the notion "we all live here", the spraying stopped. Not wanting to have an ongoing scared skunk issue, I decided to make peace. I had extra milk and began putting out a pan for the skunk family, conditioning them to human activity and getting a "word' to call them..."Sunshine". What I have learned is that skunks eat spiders, take out mouse nests, they dig cut worms and grubs out of my garden and they have the sweetest little "songs". I have been building an off-grid "home" in my barn where the bunkhouse is located. The Stinkers were determined to come into the kitchen to eat dog food and get drinks. So, I set them up with their own place, under the stairs. They have a little tunnel dug into this area from the cow barn side. I monitor their water intake to make sure they are drinking, (crude rabies screening). In researching rabies in skunks, I found that in a good portion of the Eastern US, wildlife agencies are air dropping rabies vaccine packets to vaccinate raccoons...what they overlooked was that in the studies for this "coon" issue, when tested on skunks, the packets actually gave over 90% of the skunks rabies! Luckily, I do not live in an area where these "packets" have been distributed. My recent encounters with my skunk neighbors have all been..."Oh, it's you", and they trundle off with no issues.
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