You Stink!

You Stink!

Nobody Likes You! Imagine that you are a four-legged animal about the size of a cat. You have short legs and a long, bushy tail. Your soft black fur has long white stripes. You are a beautiful animal, but nobody wants to be your friend. Why not? You're a skunk, and you stink! Anyone who smells you or gets sprayed by you never forgets it.

You and your smelly cousins live in many parts of North and South America. Striped skunks-your kind-are the skunks most people know about. Hooded skunks look like you, but more of their fur is white. Hog-nosed skunks look like hooded skunks with long noses. Spotted skunks have white spots or short stripes.

What Kind of Animal? You are a mammal. This large group also includes whales, bears, deer, mice, and many other animals. Like other mammals, you have a backbone and hair, and your babies are born live. The mammals on this page are some of your closest relatives.

Like many of your relatives, you like to eat both animals and plants. More than half of your food is insects. You also like to eat worms, frogs, rodents, lizards, snakes, birds, and eggs. Some of your favorite plants are grass, leaves, nuts, and berries.

Why You Stink You have a secret weapon to keep enemies away. You only use it after you try everything else. First, you stamp your feet if an enemy comes close. Then you hiss and growl. If the enemy doesn't leave, you raise your tail and arch your back. You try to look bigger to scare the enemy.