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Back left foot of an albino skunk. Although the most common fur color is black and white, some skunks are brown or grey and a few are cream-colored. All skunks are striped, even from birth. They may have a single thick stripe across the back and tail, two thinner stripes, or a series of white spots and broken stripes (in the case of the spotted ...
A ruff of white fur around its neck gives the animal its common name. Three color phases are known and in all three, a thin white medial stripe is present between the eyes: black-backed with two lateral white stripes, white-backed with one dorsal white stripe, or entirely black with a few white hairs in the tail. [3] [4]
The twelve species of Mephitidae are split into four genera: the monotypic Conepatus, hog-nosed skunks; Mephitis, skunks; Mydaus, stink badgers; and Spilogale, spotted skunks. Mephitidae was traditionally a clade within the Mustelidae family, with the stink badgers combined with other badgers within the Melinae genus, but more recent genetic ...
The earliest fossil finds attributable to Mephitis were found in the Broadwater site in Nebraska, dating back to the early Pleistocene less than 1.8 million years ago. By the late Pleistocene (70,000–14,500 years ago), the striped skunk was widely distributed throughout the southern United States, and it expanded northwards and westwards by the Holocene (10,000–4,500 years ago) following ...
Hog-nosed skunk. The distinguishing feature of the American hog-nosed skunk is it has a single, broad white stripe from the top of the head to the base of the tail, with the tail itself being completely white. It is the only skunk that lacks a white dot or medial bar between the eyes and has primarily black body fur.
Although both the spotted skunks and common skunks live mainly on insects, the hog-nosed skunks are even more insectivorous in their feeding habits. The bare snout appears to be used constantly for the purpose of rooting out beetles, beetle larvae (or grubs), and larvae of various insects from the ground.
Skunks were formerly classified as a subfamily of the Mustelidae (the weasel family); however, in the 1990s, genetic evidence caused skunks to be treated as a separate family. [1] Similarly, the stink badgers had been classified with badgers, but genetic evidence shows they share a more recent common ancestor with skunks, so they are now ...
The three most common types of lynx in the fur trade are the Canadian lynx, the bobcat, and the Russian lynx. Due to CITES regulations, special permits are required to trap, sell, and own lynx furs. [30] The most expensive type of lynx fur is produced with only the white underbellies of the animals creating a pure white coat with dramatic black ...