Читать книгу Extreme Nature - Mark Carwardine - Страница 39

NAME	striped skunk Mephitis mephitis
LOCATION	North America
ABILITY	defending itself with a spray containing the smells that mammals hate most

© T Kitchin/V Hurst/NHPA

Bad smell is all in the nose of the receiver, and we humans have far fewer sensors than most animals. Nonetheless, we can smell a striped skunk up to 3.2km (2 miles) away, if the wind is in the right direction. It’s possible to train our brains to ignore the most disgusting of smells, from vomit and faeces to rotting flesh – but never skunk. Other animals, including African zorillos, Tasmanian devils, wolverines and different species of skunk, produce revolting musk when threatened or attacked, but not of the strength or permanence of striped skunk spray.

The amber oil is made in two muscular glands under the skunk’s tail and can be delivered as a spray or precision jet up to a distance of 3.6m (12ft). The spray contains compounds which are the cause of the vomit-producing smell, like very, very rotten eggs. It can also cause temporary blindness and, if swallowed, unconsciousness. It is virtually impossible to remove from clothes, which are best thrown away after a close encounter.

Other mammals are also revolted by it, and so the skunk’s only serious predator is the great horned owl, which probably has little need of a sense of smell. Skunks prefer not to waste their musk, as the glands take a couple of days to refill, and so they usually raise their black-and-white tail as a warning before spraying. But such warnings go unheeded on roads, which is why cars are now their worst enemy.