To quote a recent Park visitor, “Hey, look. A skunk in a trunk!” Skunks are talented diggers, able to excavate their own dens to raise kits and escape winter weather, but these clever mammals often save time and energy by borrowing burrows abandoned by woodchucks and finding other prefab homes. Mostly active at night, skunks take advantage of convenient daytime resting places like hollow logs, culverts, wood piles, rock walls, and under buildings. The skunk at the Park clearly has a favorite hol

Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) don’t store food for the winter. Instead, they eat as much as they can in the autumn months to develop a thick fatty layer. Once winter sets in, they’ll find a den and enter a type of dormancy known as torpor. Unlike true hibernation, skunks in torpor will periodically wake up based on environmental factors. During this state, their metabolism slows and body temperature can drop by up to 20°F. In spring, skunks will emerge and seek a mate. Residents Jam and Jel