Status of the Spotted Skunk, Spilogale putorius, in Kansas

Abstract

Populations of the spotted skunk Kansas and elsewhere on the Great Plains have experienced a long-term (perhaps nearly 100 years) fluctuation density. The increasing phase of the fluctuation resulted largely from agricultural practices of settlers this region, and the decreasing phase probably was a consequence of reversal of those human activities. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci., 76 (3), 1973. The spotted skunk, Spilogsle pEtO}^iZl5, evidently was at least the easternmost tiers of counties Kansas the mid-1800's; Knox (1875: 19) noted that the Little Striped . . . [or] Polecat [is]more frequent than the [in eastern Kansas]. However, whether S. pstofiias occurred westernl Kansas at that time is a matter for conjecture. Mead (1899 :280) remarked that there were none of the small spotted variety of skunk on the plains of central Kansas 1859, and Allen (1874:46) made no mention of spotted skunks the report he compiled after spending the summer of 1871 at Fort Hays (near Hays, Ellis County) and two weeks of the winter of 18711872 in northwestern Kansas.' The first published account of S. pZltO1'iZlS western Kansas that we know of was a paper by Baker (1889), who commented (p. 56) that the species was Not seen here [near WaKeeney, Trego County] till the autumn of 1887 but that Of twenty skunks taken since that time, one-third were of this species. Subsequently, Allen ( 1 895: 274) identified three of six skunks trapped by W. W. Granger western Kansas (at Long Island, Phillips County) during the period 1 ()-30 October 1894 as representatives of the species Spilogctle ioSltes^1vpta [-S pto^isX] Lantz (1905a: 177) reported that the Little Striped Skunk was Abundant eastern Kansas, but shortly thereafter (1905b:389) he elaborated that the species was common naost parts of the . . . probably as as the large skunk the eastern part of the state (see also Hibbard, 1933:236). Black (1937:159) went so far as to say that There is hardly a locality Kansas where these carnivores [the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 3, 1973. Published July 19, 1974.