Battle Royale

Badger versus skunk: this really doesn't have much to do with Green Spaces. But this particular battle occurred near my garden, and concluded underneath it! The column this week is going to stink, but not nearly as much as our house and garden did. (The next day Dennis discovered the fight must have started under his work pickup, which was parked outside the kitchen. The smell was intensified by a factor of 10.)

In the afternoon on President's Day, Feb. 20, I was peacefully painting kindness rocks in my kitchen, when I suddenly became aware of the distinct odor of skunk. I alerted Dennis, who was in the living room watching gymnastics on TV. He hadn't yet been assailed by the eau de skunk. As he approached the front door to look outside for the offender, he became aware that my nose still works correctly. We didn't see any black & white culprits at that time.

Within a minute, after he'd returned to the couch, Dennis' attention was captured by motion in my lilac hedge out back. Wrestling there, amongst the limbs, were a young badger and a skunk. Soon the battle raged out into the yard itself and across my garden space. (Videos of the battle can be seen on my Facebook page and on Instagram.) Eventually, the badger pulled that skunk down into the hole he'd dug there.

This epic contest raised a lot of questions in me, not least of which was "is rabies involved"? I wandered down that badger hole (see what I did? not a rabbit hole) using Safari for answers. I'll share what (little) I learned. (No answer on the rabies question.)

It used to be that skunks were lumped into the Mustelidae clan. Other family members of that clan are badgers, otters, ferrets, and weasels. I'm guessing it's because they all have must-producing glands. Later research (not mine) which used DNA, put skunks into their own family, the Mephitidae (derived from a word meaning "stink"). The DNA and fossils show all 12 types of stinky species derived from a single ancestor 30-40 million years ago.

While badgers produce a musty odor from their anal glands, they use it mostly for marking territory. They'll secrete it in an ooze. Skunks, while also producing a much more powerful musty odor, don't secrete it in an ooze. They actually have nipples in their anal glands. They can aim and control the stream of stink in a spray that can go as far as 10-15 feet! (This spray is n-butyl mercaptan, and it gets even stinkier when combined with water. Which is why simply washing your pet after it's unfortunately been sprayed makes the situation so much worse.)

Skunks can only store enough of that chemical for five to six shots. It can take a week to replenish their supply, which is why they're reluctant to let loose willy-nilly. They'll give you plenty of warning to back away. Those warnings include hissing, foot stomping, and maybe a handstand before they turn and raise tail to shoot. And if for some reason they can't raise their tail, they won't spray. Apparently even they don't like their own perfume.

Both badgers and skunks are nocturnal, so it's rare to see them out in daylight. Some have suggested rabies was involved, and skunks are particularly susceptible to that disease. But I'm not going out to investigate that hole dug in my garden anytime soon! I hope the badger vacates long before it's time to till the soil, and I also hope the skunk carcass is gone. (Or maybe there will be a skull to let dry out to paint later? I'd handle it with great care as rabies resides in the brain.)

Badgers and skunks both have plantigrade back feet (as do the other members of the Mustelidae family). That means their back feet are flat, contributing to their waddle or shuffling walk. They aren't particularly fast, although I wouldn't want to have to race either a skunk or a badger, either end of either animal can be dangerous to one's health. This particular skunk appeared to have very healthy teeth. Badgers can weigh up to thirty pounds, while skunks are more trim, weighing between six and ten pounds.

Research suggests skunk mortality due to predation is less than five percent of their deaths. Predators are coyotes, fox, dogs, bobcats, mountain lions, big owls, red hawks, and badgers. Most of those will consume a skunk if they're desperate for food. Horned owls and red hawks will kill and eat skunks, but they don't really have any sense of smell, meaning they don't have to be starving first. Anyway, that five percent stat means we were really lucky to have witnessed these Wild Kingdom moments.