October 7, 2017
Last night I photographed another skunk that now has me doubting if my other skunks were actually Hooded Skunks.
This is what I was calling a Hooded Skunk. I have seen several of these so I just assumed they were Hooded Skunks and not Striped Skunks. I know Striped Skunks can sometimes have a solid white stripe, but I've never seen one before and thought that this was rare.
Here is a normal Striped Skunk and what I was calling a Hooded Skunk. I now think these are both
Striped Skunks, the variety with a solid white stripe is just more common here for some reason.
This is a Hooded Skunk. Notice how the white fur on the neck extends downward on the side and the grizzled black and white fur on the stripe and tail. It also appears less stocky and slimmer than the Striped Skunks above. After doing more research on the subject, all of these are characteristic of Hooded Skunks. Sometimes all they show is the hood over the neck and no white on the back.
Hooded Skunk. Now I need a Western Spotted Skunk and the White-backed Hog-nosed Skunk!
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