Date: Sept 16/18/20, 2024

Place: University of Guelph, Johnston Green, Guelph

Time: various

Main references:

‘Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species’, Mark Elbroch and Eleanor Marks, First Edit., Stackpole Books

Discussion:

My observations are from Johnston Green at the University of Guelph, a large grass area of the university with patches of woodland. I often wander through this area on my way to and from lectures in War Memorial Hall. I’ve seen on numerous occasions Woodchucks and Striped Skunks feeding. It’s amazing how oblivious the students can be of the animals nearby. As soon as I pay much attention to the Woodchucks they run to their numerous burrows in the clumps of bushes and wooded areas. I have heard that skunks will inhabit the burrows of other mammals so I don’t know which burrows are necessarily inhabited by skunks and which by Woodchucks. I expect in time I will know! I’ve collected some evidence below, but unfortunately I did not have a tape measure handy. I managed to creep very close to the Woodchuck in the following two photos when its back was turned. I slowly sat down just a few feet away and watched it eating small apples:

One of the questions I have is how skunk scat differ from Woodchuck scat. According to Elbroch (p. 495),

“Woodchuck scat is hard to find; it is most often found in special underground chambers or on the throw mound, where it is trampled or buried.”

and

“Striped Skunk both place scats with care and at other times drop them at random. Striped Skunks form latrines at den sites, under overhangs, or near prominent features, along travel routes, such as a stump in a field.”

The pictures of these scats in Elbroch are not particularly informative. I am fairly used to seeing skunk scat in my yard as they frequently dig there for invertebrates and leave their scat. E.g.,

This is quite a few days old, but the basic appearance hasn’t changed that much. It’s fairly shapeless (a ‘mass’) and very dark. Now here is some scat I found on Johnston Green:

In pictures 2 and 3 the scat is very dark. Is this skunk scat? The scat in the 1st picture looks qualitatively different. Could this be Woodchuck scat, or just skunk scat that has aged? Of course there is also the possibility of Racoon scat. (All three scats were found within several feet of large burrows, e.g. shown below:

The width of these burrows are approximately my hand width or a bit larger.

Final thoughts:

The observations I show in this post have left more questions than answers. What is the typical appearance of skunk scat? How do they differ from Woodchuck scat? Which dens on Johnston Green are inhabited by skunks and which by Woodchuck? Another question that occurs to me is how to tell whether the digging sign on grass is from skunks or Gray Squirrels looking for nuts? Here is some sign on my lawn at home that I suspect is from a Skunk (Skunks tend to dig many areas of grass close together, compared to squirrels that leave more isolated holes):