Say hello to my little friend.

Hey, what's up creatures?

It's Em. And I'm back today with another Creature Feature,

the series where I pick an animal and tell you lots of facts about them.

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Or Dobby or somebody else. [kissing noise]

Today we're going to be looking at the striped skunk from North America,

but I need my assistant.

Where is my assistant today?

I'll be right back.

This is Puddin', my gorgeous assistant for today.

She is a North American striped skunk.

Puddin' is a female skunk, a little over a year old now,

and she actually used to belong to somebody else.

She was a captive bred skunk so she wasn't taken from the wild,

but the person who originally had her,

he fell into some difficulty, unfortunately, and he was made homeless.

And of course if you're homeless,

it's very difficult to keep a pet skunk.

So he actually gave her to a pet store, who very kindly boarded her for over a year.

Luckily this person did manage to find a new place to live, but sadly they didn't allow skunks.

So she was up for adoption and the store actually asked myself and Danny

if we would like to be first in line to adopt her, we said yes.

So we adopted little Puddin' here. She is absolutely brilliant.

Don't worry, she is not a wild caught skunk.

She wasn't born in the wild and then taken into captivity.

Just born in captivity bred by a licensed breeder,

and we have her here at home under a permit which is issued by the state.

So don't worry, I didn't just randomly go outside and decide to bring a skunk home.

There's actually a million reasons why you shouldn't do that

and I will come on to those later in the video.

But first of all, sit back and enjoy this very fragrant Creature Feature. [giggles]

Fragrant!

[sped up] Fragrant!

[slowed] Fragrant. Frag-rant.

Now if you say the word "skunk," most people's reactions are,

"No. no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. Nooo. No. Nooo. NO.

That's because skunks are notorious for the foul odor they can produce

when they're scared or when they're threatened.

And we'll talk a little bit more about their special fragrance a bit later on.

Just like us, skunks are mammals.

They are covered in fur or hair, they give birth to live young, and they feed their babies on milk.

Baby skunks are called "kits," like kittens, but just kits for short.

Typically speaking in a striped skunk's litter, you'd be looking at between four and six kits.

And we're now just eating the inside of my shirt, which is lovely. That's great.

[♪ sultry jazz music ♪]

Skunks are born in late April all the way through to early May,

so around about now when I'm uploading and editing this video.

Just like many mammals, kits are born completely blind and very deaf

and they are reliant on their mother.

But they do quickly grow and learn to forage for food

and by the age of three months, they are completely independent from their parents.

It took me more like 23 years for complete independence.

Sorry, Mum and Dad.

Skunks are predominantly a nocturnal species, which means that they predominantly wake up at nighttime.

However, they will wake up at dawn and dusk as well,

so it could be argued that they are both nocturnal and crepuscular.

When skunks are sleeping they roll into a ball shape

and this helps them to protect their heads from predators.

[sneezes]

[sneezes]

Emma is extremely allergic to skunks and has to put it down for a couple of minutes.

To sleep, they're happy to invade the dens of other animals

or sleep in tree hollows or even a dark shed.

Mostly, they just like anywhere where it's cooler and dark.

Skunks are omnivores, or as I like to call them,

omnomnomnom-nivores because they eat practically everything!

They're happy to eat invertebrates like worms, for example,

which are one of their favorite food.

I mean literally if it smells like food they are going to eat it.

Whether it is a deceased animal such as roadkill, berries,

sweet roots, nuts, any leftover food from garbage cans that they find, chicks that they find nesting on the floor,

Anything. If it smells like food, they're going to eat it. Including Emma's fingers.

Don't eat my fingers.

Their ability to handle so many types of food is partially what makes them such a successful species.

They literally will eat everything and anything,

even when it's not that good for them.

In captivity this can cause a bit of a problem because...

they're very prone to obesity.

For the kits that make it through their very first winter,

sadly, the average lifespan is only between 2 to 5 years for a wild skunk.

In fact, 5 years would be really pushing it.

Of course in the wild, they have roads to contend with.

The sounds and the lights from roads really confuse them and disorientate them.

Because of this, skunks are often caught in road traffic accidents.

But in captivity, the average lifespan of a skunk is much, much longer.

Ten years or a little bit more is not unheard of for a captive skunk.

Although striped skunks can occur where there are very harsh winters,

such as on the East Coast or up into the southern tips of Canada,

they won't actually hibernate the way that bears or a hedgehog would.

They will reduce their activity somewhat,

but they don't go into a true hibernating sleep.

Okay, now let's take a look at some of the features of the skunk

because there is so much that you can tell about an animal just by looking at their features.

First of all, the face.

Small eyes and a big nose.

This animal does not need to rely on eyesight for very much.

Their most powerful sense, of course, is their sense of smell.

Their nose is incredibly powerful and they can use that nose to detect their favorite food underground.

[skunk sniffing sounds, Em giggling]

And now for those perfectly manicured feet.

Their cute little feetses!

Although they look very formidable, they're actually very blunt.

And they're there to help them to dig.

These guys are a pest to a lot of people's lawns.

If you have holes in your lawn which look like this,

Congratulations, you have a skunk.

Seriously, let's just take a look at these feet over here.

I'm sure many of you know the joy of toe beans,

the things that cats have which are so so soft, or the dog pads that actually smell really nice,

but you've never experienced... skunk feet.

Skunk feet are just like the softest leather you've ever encountered!

Look at it!

[distorted, slowed speech]

Just look. It's just so cute! Oh my God!

Here, take it. Take your vitamin paste.

Lastly, color.

Just looking at this skunk, it's high contrast.

And usually, animals which have a high contrast in a black and yellow, black and white,

that is a sign of danger.

Their color, the black and white, lets other animals know that if they come any closer,

they are going to get sprayed. Yes, sprayed.

We've come to their number one defense.

What they're very famous for: that foul odor.

Skunks don't smell bad all of the time.

They do have a body odor very similar to ferrets,

but they don't have that very famous, feared smell

unless they themselves are scared or threatened.

It's also a misconception that skunks smell bad because they "fart."

Skunks can fart!

I would know.

Yes, they can.

Just like many mammals, skunks do have the ability to fart.

But a skunk fart is like a delicate little windy pop of aroma compared to the actual smell that they are famous for.

Their famous scent does not come from a fart which would be a gas.

Nope, their signature smell comes in the form of a noxious liquid!

The liquid is stored in two little glands inside the anus of a skunk.

So it's in these grape-size glands that are stored within the skunk's anus

that they store their noxious liquid.

But when it's time to actually squirt the liquid,

there's two little appendages that look kind of like pink-colored pinkies, just the tip of your pinkies,

that poke out from the anus—

Hellooooo!

—and then that is where they can shoot with deadly accuracy up to ten feet away,

which is roughly three meters, their noxious liquid. And it smells disgusting.

That smell is so potent

that it can travel and linger up to a mile and a half away.

So we can all bask in the ambience.

Girl, ya smell. A lot.

If you're curious as to how a skunk's liquid smells,

it's like putting your head into a warm deep container

filled with sulphur,

ammonia, rotting eggs, and burning rubber.

Take a deep whiff.

[smells skunk] Aaah! [giggles]

If you are sprayed by a skunk,

the spray can actually cause irritation and it can even induce asthma and vomiting.

So it's just good to keep a comfortable distance if you ever see a skunk.

The smell of skunk spray can linger on furniture, in your hair, on your skin,

and there's this misconception that if you use tomato juice, it will remove the smell.

Sorry, that's a little bit of a myth.

In order to eliminate the smell,

you have to oxidize the thiols because the thiols are what actually causes the smell to be so potent and disgusting.

Oxidizing the thiols neutralizes the odor.

The way you can achieve this is by using

3% hydrogen peroxide in warm water with a little bit of detergent and baking soda.

Now if you're going to use this because you've actually been sprayed by a skunk,

You might want to do a patch test on your skin

just to make sure that you do not get irritated by the solution

because it would contain a little bit of hydrogen peroxide.

Of course if you get any skunk spray in your eyes,

never put anything other than water in your eyes to rinse it out.

Unless the doctor gives you something different.

But if you do get sprayed by a skunk,

there you go.

3% hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, warm water,

and a little bit of washing-up liquid or detergent.

Scrub scrub scrub!

You can usually tell when a skunk is going to spray you

because they've got very clear warning signs to tell you to back away.

One of their warning signs is to stamp their feet.

Dun dun dun. They will literally jump forward and stamp their front feet and pull backwards and stamp again.

Kind of like they're doing that little thriller dance from Michael Jackson.

They can hiss, they can huff, they can stamp their feet,

and then they will turn around and lift up that tail.

Say hello to my little friend.

[fart noise]

Of course, if you're lucky enough to run into a spotted skunk,

they do something that looks like this:

They handstand.

So if a skunk is baring their teeth,

stamping, lifting their tail, hissing at you, or growling,

just back away slowly, quietly.

And count your blessings that you don't get sprayed because then you're just gonna stink for days.

Now earlier in this video, I did mention that I didn't just go out and trap a skunk.

There are some very good reasons why you don't just go out and trap a skunk.

Skunks are a rabies vector species,

Which means that they very prevalently carry rabies.

Rabies is transmitted through the saliva of infected animals,

so a bite from a skunk with rabies can be fatal to either yourself or your pets.

if you're worried about rabies in skunks,

these are some of the things that you can look for:

salivating, being out and about during the day because remember, they are a nocturnal or crepuscular species,

so they really shouldn't be out in the daytime unless they are either injured or maybe have rabies,

confusion, stumbling and basically being a little bit uneasy on their feet,