Spotted skunks and their carcasses

Hey everyone! My friend has been doing a project regarding spotted skunks! She has been studying them, their meat, skeletal structure and fur. If y’all trap one if y’all wouldn’t mind recording data as far as where caught, sex, weight. If y’all would sell or donate to Angelo State University here in Texas would be awesome. If not if you could at least record the data. It goes into a historical documentation as well as the preserved fur. Thanks!
Contact Hannah
hjones13@angelo.edu

Obviously, she's only looking for eastern spotted skunks rather than westerns?

Jack

Good people straight up to deal with sent them several in the past, I even kept the pods they did not want the stink. Plan to run cages and this is a big part of that.

Nice thing about this is prime or color means little to them so what is a less wanted fur for the market is OK for this no problem, ADC ones should be fine also. They would like a GPS location and a photo of the area it was caught in also.

We cannot trap them here.

I am surprised that they haven't received all they need. There is no shortage of civet cats in Texas, catch 4 or 5 a year cat trapping.

Grew up here in the flint hills of Ks catching lots of the little buggers. Haven't seen one in years, they are gone. Happened back in the late sixtys or early seventys. I suspect farmers spraying chemicals, but can't be sure. Could have been disease. All I know that they were quite plentiful, and within a few years they were gone!

Insecticides make sense as a probable reason for decline. In the 60's is when use of the heavy duty organophosphates really got going and civets are primarily insect eaters. Here in western Oregon the westerns are doing very well, but the only spraying going on in their habitat is primarily herbicides.

Urban sprawl and zoning regulations have a lot to do with it, everything they need for habitat is considered a nuisance in many areas today! Old farm places are destroyed or need to be cleaned up to comply with the laws, not much for idle acres any more, slash and burning all have a negative outcome for the civets along with corporate farming practices.


Sad they will limit the trapping of them in places but do nothing to help them long term really so the outlook is grim we have good numbers in central SD but the same things that happened in other place are going on here corporate farming is all about money and not much else.


I contacted the GFP about a relocation program with other States and you would think I was speaking French they seemed clueless and started to drone on about the current skunk rules in place. It was like the idea of relocating a threatened species was a unreal concept to them! LOL Talked to 2 guy at the GFP and both could not wrap their heads around the idea of a relocation program not even the basic idea just ticked me off.

I know some bubonic plague studies in Colorado showed it in pack rats and the spotted skunks that prey on them.Those are probably Westerns,I'm guessing.

This flyer was made a while back. They will take any kind of spotted skunk. At first they started focusing on the eastern s but realized how rare they are to get ahold of.

They will be getting some Eastern ones this fall I sent Dr. Fowler a email letting him know I was running some cages this year!

[quote=Law Dog
I contacted the GFP about a relocation program with other States and you would think I was speaking French they seemed clueless and started to drone on about the current skunk rules in place. It was like the idea of relocating a threatened species was a unreal concept to them! LOL Talked to 2 guy at the GFP and both could not wrap their heads around the idea of a relocation program not even the basic idea just ticked me off. [/quote]

Yeah Jerry, I had that same conversation with our state furbearer biologist. He had all kinda reasons not to do it., and he is a great guy. I thought of this and checked with him first. Glad I did, as I was getting ready to contact you and to transport them down in my area, all on my own dime. I thought they would appreciate the effort!

You would think there would be someplace (places) in a whole State like a little State Park or wildlife area they could release a few pairs to maintain a population of them! We ain't talking sabretooth tigers here! LOL

Any one see or trap one in Mo, the fur biologist wants the also. They have been requesting it for years. They want sightings of weasels and badgers too.

Laura Conlee
Resource Scientist – Furbearer Biologist
Missouri Department of Conservation
Central Regional Office and Conservation Research Center
3500 East Gans Road
Columbia, MO 65201
Phone: 573.815.7900 ext. 2903
Fax: 573.815.7902

Jerry, I asked years ago concerning restoration (can't recall if I asked about the skunks or the weasels.) and the answer was they were still trying to determine whether any remained and if the natives were of a subspecies etc.

The last thing they would want is for folks to willy-nilly be doing their own transplant programs. Really bad idea. Likely illegal to boot.

Would not do it without going through the Game and Fish but then their plan is to do nothing so willy-nilly is a advanced plan by those standards! LOL