Years ago it was very unusual to see (or smell) a skunk in eastern North Carolina. Things are obviously changing. Most people see as many (if not more) dead skunks than they do the dead opossums on the road. It seems like skunks are about everywhere and their population seems to be getting larger every year.

So what’s wrong with skunks (outside their obnoxious smell)?

As with other things, when you get too many of some kinds of animals problems start to arise. Disease usually sets in as nature’s way of controlling an over-population and with some predators; the very dangerous disease of rabies infects them. Skunks are becoming literally dangerous to man and are reported to be a serious problem as they eat the eggs in the nest of birds.

Skunks are now considered to be the main carrier of rabies in the United States. Rabid foxes and raccoons within the city limits of Raleigh get a lot of press yet the striped skunk presents the worst threat of rabies in our state we hear little about it. Perhaps the fact that people literally hate to pick up a dead (smelly) skunk carcass to deliver to the health authorities for rabies testing has something to do with that.

Some of our Old Timers no doubt remember Dr. Boone Mora who was the Public Health Administrator for Beaufort and Northampton Counties for years. Dr. Mora was convinced that we could totally eliminate the disease of rabies here in America by placing treated baits throughout the countryside to inoculate wild animals like foxes, skunks, hybrid coyotes, and raccoons. Similar inoculation programs had already been successfully conducted in some Scandinavian countries and he saw little reason not to undertake such a program here at home.

It might even be a less expensive way to treat our Tar Heel population of red “wolves” against the many communicable diseases that these animals harbor. The only thing that has kept this program from being initiated seems to be the lack of money. Perhaps this would be a good way to distribute all that “stimulus” money into a green area.

Raccoons and possums seem to fall into a different category of animals. We consider these two to be “game animals” and they have hunting seasons for them. In the case of skunks and coyotes, we can shoot them anytime as long as it would be legal to be shooting. There’s no closed season or bag limits on them and they can be shot much the same as groundhogs.

Several years ago I was the guest of Ducks Unlimited at their headquarters in North Dakota to look at some of their waterfowl conservation projects. We were in that area where most of the ducks and geese nest and I was quite impressed at what DU was accomplishing with their predator control projects. I was surprised to hear their report that predators such as the skunks, raccoons, badgers and other predators were destroying an estimated 100 million eggs of waterfowl every year. We’re all very familiar with the loss of wetlands as one of the reasons for the lack of ducks and geese and progress is being made toward correcting that problem. Controlling predators does not get much attention in this area.

DU had constructed a relatively small, predator proof, fenced-off area for a selected few ducks and the waterfowl reproduction and survival rate there was notably higher than that of the ducks who nested on unprotected areas.

DU’s explanation for the huge increase in the numbers of predators was that these animals were establishing homes in the long abandoned prairie houses that homesteaders had built over a hundred years ago. By encouraging landowners to destroy these abandoned safe-havens for predators, waterfowl production in the immediate area increased dramatically.

There’s a good point to be made for controlling predators in order to facilitate more production of other more desirable (to humans) animals such as bobwhite quail, ducks and geese, rabbits, deer and---songbirds.

There are numerous reasons listed for the decline of some bird population, Loss of habitat, the use of chemicals on agricultural land and of course, predation by various animals such as feral house cats, snakes, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, fire ants, hawks, deer are readily listed as having an effect on bird populations. We don’t hear that much about the effect of skunks on other species of wildlife and, now with the rabies threat making headlines, perhaps some consideration should be given to controlling the expanding population of skunks.

Wildlife biologists don’t hesitate to put the some of the blame for the declining quail population on certain predators as domestic cats and coyotes. There are even reports of videos of whitetail deer eating quail eggs from the nest. It would be out-of-line not to mention that a significant number of quail fall each year because of predation by certain species of raptors which are highly protected by law.

At the risk of arousing the wrath of the bird-watching community, these species of hawks are sometime referred to as being the “fighter-interceptor jets of the raptor world” because of their ability to fly into heavy cover to attack smaller animals. Biologists who point part of the finger of guilt at the Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks also tell me that these hawks have learned to frequent bird feeders in urban areas where they find it to be easy picking at songbirds that gather at easy food we place at their disposal. Some outdoorsmen have the audacity to even suggest that these hawks be re-classified in order to permit some control measures to be taken on them. When asked how many people could tell the difference between these hawks an other species of hawks, their standard answer is, “Waterfowl hunters are expected to be able to tell the difference in all ducks and geese so why not hawks?”

Telling the difference between a good predator and a bad predator is certainly a hot button issue politically these days. We consider our striped skunks and coyotes to be “bad” predators because they prey on animals that we humans consider to be more desirable. “Good” predators don’t seem to overly infringe on animals that we approve of. Problems happen when we begin to have too many “good” predators.

While skunks smell bad and aren’t considered to be fit to eat (I have recipes for baked skunk, don’t laugh!) they are predators that are near the top of the food chain. The only predators on skunks that I know of are owls and hawks (they have no sense of smell) and man.

Attempts to control predators on the open prairie lands of the waterfowl breeding grounds is having success by destroying the abandoned homes and outbuildings. North Carolina isn’t North Dakota but we certainly do have our share old, deserted, homes and outbuildings. As in the case of the safe havens for predators on the open prairie, these are becoming homes for various predators here.

There aren’t many hunting seasons open at his time of the year but, with proper licensing, varmint hunters keep their shooting eyes keen by killing groundhogs, nutria and coyotes. Perhaps some early morning or late afternoon varmint hunting trips should be directed at our increasing numbers of striped skunks as well as groundhogs. It could go a long way in reducing the rabies threat as well as reducing the number of predators on our bobwhite quail, wild turkeys and ruffed grouse.