Anyone ever caught one?

Good numbers here if you know where to look. I don’t target them anymore I do relocate them to remote habitats now.

Very nice Law Dog. From what I could look up here are where most populations are located now

Have never saw one here in SWVA. Eric

They have a bigger area in SD pretty much covers the Missouri River valley north to South. I helped on a few projects in IA, SD and TX for research projects until I realized they did nothing to benefit the spotted skunks just students looking to get their degrees. I finally said I’m done helping them study them into extinction. I did not see any plans to improve their numbers on the horizon.

When dealing with some folks in IA they did find a small population in a military area that was not known to exist that was a great find. I did some mapping along with the state trapper and never heard back from the person doing the research. I even offered a tour of known civet habitats and nothing back about that either.

I have lots of photos and videos of them working my cat cubbies, some cameras I left out all winter even had pairs at the same cubby running around I’m no tech guy or I’d post them.

Look at that; right smack dab in the middle of Fayette-Nam, Pennsylvania!

Caught 2 back in the 80s in south-central Ga...about an hour north of the Florida line.

On the map above they're not supposed to be there now...and probably ain't.

We caught one in the late 70s. Legal but turned loose. Saw a couple hit in the early 80s.

I caught them in AZ in the 1980's. No clue if they are there now. It seems like I heard of them being caught in SW ND in the last 10-15 years.

Im smack dab in the middle of their range in KS and have never seen one in my life. My dad talked about them being around in decent numbers when he was young. I remember when I was real young driving home one night and dad saying one was on the edge of the road but I didnt see it.

I’ve only seen one in Tennessee and it was at a fur sale a few years ago. I think it came from the eastern part of the state . My youngest son was in Florida earlier in the year doing some training and ran upon a litter while he was out fishing one morning , he sent me pictures of them and ask what they were. He said his buddy and him was trying to catch one until I told him what they were .

I was told they were here in the 60s possibly early 70s. Never seen or caught one or heard of anyone catching one in my trapping days which started as a kid in the mid seventies. The old timers called them civet cats.

Many cages won’t hold them unless they are tight around the doors they are pretty light weight so they sometimes won’t set off larger traps. I’d say people here catch them and don’t know they even had one in their cages.

I ain't seen a civet cat in years. Last one walked up on a buddy of mine and he shot it all to pieces. Stunk up the place like nobody's business. Pound for pound they got double the stink of polecats.

For those of you that have experience with spotted skunks, is there a significant difference in how they smell when they spray? I've never been around one and I've always been curious.

Much more pungent.

I caught a few in the mountains of southwest Virginia when I was a young'un running a fox line near the house at the base of Big Walker Mountain.

Theres a few noticeable differences between the two kinds of essence we all know striped skunks have the orange/yellow colored quill but the spotted skunks have a fat that resembles grits it’s white in color not as pasty looking. The essence looks like weak pee color some say it’s a sweeter smell my thought is less sharp of an odor. The sacks on a civet are around the size of a frozen pea with the males a bit bigger than the females.

I describe their size as a chubby squirrel size.

The civets do indeed do a handstand when they are threatened it’s a hoot to watch them. I’ll try to get a pic up of one doing that.

Wonder what’s the difference between eastern and western ? We have a fair number of them in Oregon.

wws

Caught one in a live trap I set at the chicken coop about 8 years ago. Took a picture of it and looking for it now. It was bigger than what I expected as seeing the western ones out in west Texas. I just threw a blanket over the trap and hauled it down the road and turned it lose. It never sprayed.

LDFW is probably in line with TPWD as I got some emails the other day asking trappers to help in regards to them seeing/catching them. Lived here most of my entire life and only seen one.

The only difference I know of is the time of breeding. The Westerns are breeding right now and have delayed implantation pausing development until the spring. Easterns breed in March.

I had a trail camera video of a western civet chasing off two full grown bobcats from a beaver carcass. It was bouncing up and down on it's front feet like a pogo stick.

That would be cool to see.