Imperial Valley press., 1914-07-11
BIOLOGIST HANDLES SKUNKS
WITn GREAT IMMUNITY

they should be kind and gentle to these
little perambulating perfume facto-
ries.
ID. E. Lantz, assistant biologist for
the United States department of ag-
riculture, is the writer of the article
and he assures his readers that all
of his research work has been accom-
lrhshed without any assault on his
Clefactory sensibilities. Discussing
this first and main point for the
benefit and possibly to the relief of
neoph:tes, he says:
"a large vigorous animal has been
known to throw the fluid nearly a
rod lut the ordinary distance is
from six to ten feet Skunks
use this peculiar and effective means
of defense only when attacked or
badly frightened"
Further to prove the inoffensivc-
ness of skunk whose nerves have
not vibrated into state of hysteria,
/ he describes how he has seen one man,
at least, carry skunks about by the
tail without harm and recommends
that they be grasped by the thick
Part of the caudal appendage.
However, it appears from the evil
dence adduced by himself and many
other scientists that the skunk has
been innocently indicted under the
alias Of polecat, whose habitat is in
Europe and whose name and mad
reputation We're transferred to our
own patriotic and sweet-dispositioned
skunk. The polecat is very bad. It
is so horrid that few persons have
undertaken to dissect its stomach in
order to learn what it fed on to pro-
duce an order that would bar it from
even third class passage on an old
time Hull liner. Not so with our
skunk!
"The biological survey has records
Of the contents of sixty-seven skunk
stomachs," writes Lantz, examined
by his field men, Grasshoppers and
crickets formed a large percentage
Of the food of nearly half the skunks
examined. Beetles and their larvae
formed the most important item of
food, being found in nearly two-thirds
Of the stomachs and in many instan-
ces being the sole diet. Fifteen ami
mails had eaten injurious rodents, such
as mice, rats, ground squirrels and
pocket gophers, while three had eat
en- carrion; three had taken lizards
CT salamanders; three crayfish; two
fungi; two earthworms, and six ber-
ries or other fruit. In one stomach
the feathers of bird were found,
and in another, that of an animal
trapped in a domestic hen house,
parts of a domestic fowl. Two stom-
achs contained centipedes; one saw
flies; one cicadas only, and another
the pulpy stems of a succulent plant"
Lantz explains that the chief in
dictment against the skunk is that
it destroys poultry, but insists that
only a few cases of serious loss due
to the animal are reported. Minks
and weasels, he believes, are the ac-
tual culprits and the skunk merely
1a ,l,,rIa,. of+ i
have been killed, feasted on and aban-
doned. A common skunk cannot
climb Minks and weasels can. They
are experts at it. A common skunk
takes only one bird at a time and
| il must be caught on the ground. The
ether two animals kill many birds in
cne night. The mink eats only the
head off and the weasel sucks the
blood as long as it runs freely. Hav-
ing orce, however, acquired taste
for chicken, skunk will return night
after night to the poultry yard for
fresh victim. But the bad skunk,
which, like its brethren, is neither
suspicious nor cunning, is easily
caught. He blunders into a trap
whether baited or not.
The skunk is one of the most i'm
lportant mammals in it's choice of
harmful insects for diet 1t destroys
army and tobacco worms, white and
hop Grubs, cutworms, cicadas, crick-
cts, sphinx moths and beetle inju-
rious to sweet potatoes in the South.
Skunks are among the few animals
that prey on the Colorado potato
beetle. Continuing, Lantz says:
although other mammals, includ-
/ ing coyotes, badgers, foxes, minks and
weasels, do far more good by des-
troying noxious rodents than is gen.
orally realized, the skunk surpasses
them all. 1t is sufficiently numerous
in many localities to keep field mice
in check and reports from various
parts of the country show that close
| trapping of skunks and fur animals is