Cool Critters: This time of year, the skunk knows it pays to reek

It’s skunk mating season. Perhaps you’ve caught a whiff of it in the air.

Because sometimes love stinks.

Two skunk species live in Washington and Idaho: the commonly encountered striped version and the seldom-seen spotted skunk that sticks to remote areas.

The focus of this column is Stripey, which breeds from February through March, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

This time of year, male striped skunks are embarking on an expansive romantic quest, traveling long distances in search of multiple females to mate, the agency says, mostly when it’s dark.

Which means these solitary, timid mammals with stout bodies and black and white fur are roaming forests, deserts and farmlands, crossing roads and scuttling through backyards. Some are peering into burrows and beneath rock piles, sheds and decks.

Hello! Is there a female in there?

So don’t be surprised if you catch a glimpse of a skunk ambling about this time of year. Even in darkness, their bold white stripes stand out. You might detect their musky odor as well – but not necessarily the notorious kind that lingers for days.

No, this odor is less intense and more transient. First you smell it, then you don’t. “Did I just smell a skunk?” you wonder. “Nah.” Then you smell it again.

Remember all those male skunks out searching for love? Imagine a lustful one scooching into a burrow or poking his nose into a hollow log, but the female inside wants nothing to do with him. Maybe she recently mated or she’s not in heat yet. Perhaps she’s turned off by his aggressive advances.

So what does she do?

“Females are highly selective and will spray males they do not want to mate with,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife explains on its website.

That’s right. By lifting her tail and emitting a small spritz of odor from two anal glands, she delivers the message: BACK OFF.

Alas, the scent wafting through the wintry air could be the smell of rejection.

“This explains why you often get whiffs of skunk this time of year even in situations where it looks unlikely that a skunk would have been threatened by dogs or people,” said wildlife biologist Brett DeGregorio of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Michigan State University.

Skunks deploy different types of spray for different situations they encounter, said DeGregorio, who studies skunk behavior and adaptability. For example, the defensive, high-pressure liquid that skunks spray on menacing predators and clueless dogs is much more intense than the mist a female will spurt toward an annoying male.

Regardless of a skunk’s reason for spraying, it’s not something they do willy-nilly, said Ted Stankowich, an evolutionary biologist and skunk researcher at California State University. Skunks carry a limited supply of the foul-smelling oil in their anal glands, and once it runs out, it takes about a week to replenish, he said.

Despite what most people think, “skunks don’t want to spray you. They have other warning behaviors to tell humans, dogs and predators to stay away,” Stankowich said. Typically, a skunk will hiss, stomp its feet, raise its tail straight up and shake it, he said.

When that doesn’t work, the skunk will U-turn its body so it can see the intruder while precisely aiming its butt at it. This the skunk’s last, hardline warning to move away, Stankowich said.

And now we know what happens when an unwanted male chooses to ignore it.