Field journal

Two skunks on a November night

Woodland Hilltop

  • At night, a black-and-white skunk with its bushy tail raised stands in short green grass beside a dirt track, lit by a bright beam, with its shadow on the track behind it.

    A skunk, probably a striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), raises its tail beside a grassy track on the hilltop.

  • Two black-and-white skunks, slightly blurred, move side by side across a muddy dirt track edged with short green grass, under a bright beam against a dark background.

    The pair of skunks crossing the track a moment later.

Two skunks crossed a grassy track on the hilltop at Woodland Hilltop Arbory at about 8:20 pm on November 21, 2025, caught in the beam of a light. From their broad white stripes and plumed tails, they are probably striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis). One raised its tail, often a skunk’s warning, before the pair moved on across the track.

Skunks forage at night for beetle larvae and other insects in soil and leaf litter, and the fall rains had turned the hilltop’s tracks green with new grass.

Theme Monitoring biodiversity

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