Awesome looks simple enough for me haha. Thanks a bunch

An operator in Central Ohio (I know and trust) caught a skunk in an attic.

I caught a skunk on the second floor of an apartment, so I know they can climb stairs.

We removed a skunk from the peak of a roof one time too. If we had not done work for this client before I would have thought it a prank call, but sure enough, when we went out, there was a skunk on the peak of her roof. We have pics if I can find them. I have to assume a bird of prey took it up there!!!!

By the way, the skunk was deceased.

Never say never!

That's pretty crazy that it was on the roof haha

The western spotted skunk climbs very well, seen many of them up in trees eating on baits at night running traps. They get into attics here regularly.

I recently had them in an attic. They fell through the lights in the ceiling into the kitchen. I didn't believe the customer till I saw it happen. They can climb, just not the norm

Okay, I give up! Our striped skunks can't get out of a 18 inch window well but everybody else's can pole vault to the top of roofs. You guys can keep your athletic skunks and I'll just have to satisfied with my uncoordinated ones.

Hahaha I was thinking the same thing!

Hey I was making some of those sets today and was wondering. How do you remove the skunk without spraying? I always used the enclosed cage traps so the skunk can't see out of and don't spray.

Same way you spank a porcupine! Very carefully!

Dylan, make sure you cover your traps when making the sets. Some guys use trash bags and duck tape. Some use canvas or an old blanket. Quarter inch plywood, cut to size works good. Ridged plastic, cut to size works well.

Leave the front and back open of course for the see thru effect.

If you have a skunk in an uncovered trap use a dark colored sheet or blanket and very slowly approach the trap and cover it. If the skunk gets upset, stop and wait a minute. Then continue.

Be slow and gentle with skunks and they will be the same with you.

We ended up with a litter of 6 orphaned skunks just this last summer. Built a large kennel which was wired off with smaller chicken wire (yes very grippy surface).

Point of my .02 is that we'd look out the window at the kennel in the back yard and 2-3 out of six would be heading for the top of the pen (which was over 6ft. tall) and they only stopped when their heads touched the ceiling and they realized they couldn't exit.

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While skunks based on the comments can climb, the better question would be behaviorally motivated or biologically motivated. A skunks nature versus a raccoons nature for example. Ma coon feels good up in a tree, so why not up in an attic or chimney, while skunks being the earthmover they are, most folks commonly see them at or near ground level.

Cool examples though of what they can do, versus what they are likely to do given by all who have had them above ground level.

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Skunks obviously also carry that great "ars" enal to protect themselves at ground level or anywhere they choose to hang out. That added chemical warfare can be at play along with that biology/behavior as well, versus critters that must seek height and refuge due to lacking the ability to target their enemy from a distance when spooked.

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Paul, to your window well issue, I'd say that is a good point, but makes me think of a colony of bats I dealt with out here that fell down into some smooth wall voids. Some local folks advised the fire dept. that the bats would eventually climb out and not to worry, however the walls were so smooth that there wasn't enough texture even for bats (who need precious little to grasp). The result much like with skunks in metal window wells is a critter that could or can climb who somehow can't due to the mechanics and physics involved.

Also makes me think about the potential mind set of said skunk in the window well, is it expecting to dig out or find a ground level solution as it normally would and climbing doesn't enter its mind?

Just went to a coopers hawk in a warehouse a few days back, had been in there 5 days even with 6 large massive bay doors wide open, it would not leave (no staff or activity even in there to bother it).

This hawk can of course make nice tiny little technical moves through rafters, sprinkler systems (past your net! lol), so why doesn't it simply fly out?

I think we sometimes underestimate or leave out the mind set of these various species which is a wild card in the various issues we are called for as an industry.

Makes it interesting!



Justin

Your point is well taken Justin. The only way to get that hawk to fly out is to get above it and then they'll shoot through those open windows like the devil was after them. ( At least that's the only way I've been able to do it )

Now back to striped skunks. I've seen way too many skunk bodies in the bottom of window wells that most other mammals would have escaped from. Striped skunks never cease to amaze me, especially the large males. I wrote a story a while back in WCT about a very large male skunk that had a clear plastic cup stuck on its head.

He happened to be leaning against the door of the dormitory that my son stayed in at Concordia University. Because the cup was clear, he saw me and tried to get away. I had a seven gallon bucket and I used the cover to sweep him into the bucket. No smell. He was large enough to put his front feet on the rim of the bucket and look right at me. So I popped the cup off of his head. No smell. I then noticed that he had two plastic necklaces around his neck and I had nothing with me to remove them so I had to take him home.

When I got home, I grabbed a sheet metal clippers and opened up the bucket. Again he stood on his hind legs as I proceeded to clip the plastic rings off of his neck. He moved very little during this whole process and I was amazed. He never tried to bite and it almost seemed like he knew what I was doing. After the rings were off I took him about a mile from home, tipped over the bucket, and got a very close shot of his huge rear end as he calmly walked into the woods.

I know of no other animal that would have allowed me to do this without causing a ruckus. Large male skunks probably only spray (at each other) during mating season. Everything else gives them a wide berth. Now little skunks are an entirely different animal. I have had them spray me right between the eyes just because they could. They're not mean but they're like kids with a new toy and they just want to use it.

That is because the temps are so low up by you Paul, the skunks have frozen muscles. Like when I have been sitting in a tree for hours in the cold with my bow when the deer comes I can't pull it back.lol

By the way I did catch the two skunks and mtncat you are right. You just have to be very careful. Its not as easy to cover them up when you're already underneath the house and crawling on your belly but if you are slow enough and careful enough you can just slip that burlap sack right over. Paul that's a really cool story about the friendly skunk. I wish they would just let me take the trap off their foot during normally trapping season because I'd gladly let them go if they wouldn't spray.

Dylan, I have tried releasing skunks from footholds. I talk to them all the while and they seem very calm and no spaying. Until they try to walk on the foot that was in the trap. The blood is starting to recirculate in that foot and it hurts. And they let you know it!

Haha I've attempted to get pretty close to let one go and then that tail goes up and that's when I decide I'm already too close haha

A board in a window well with some carpet nailed on it will let the little stink bomb get a good foot hold on the ramp. With a smooth slick board he may just use it for a shade board and take a nap.

Big Skunk, Please don't tell my customers how to get skunks out of window wells. I like to refer to window wells as money pits. And the cool thing is that in our part of the country they are actually digging them bigger and deeper. Sometimes there is an entire picture window down there so the owners can watch all the animals that they have trapped.

I really like animals in chimneys, but I love animals in window wells. My record, so far, is mother skunk and 6 good sized babies.
Got them all out and relocated them to a farmers hay field.

Well I thought there was only two but I guess I was wrong.