Biologists in Kansas lucked out this week with a salty snack that this rare and endangered creature just couldn’t resist.
Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks
Biologists in Kansas got lucky this week with the help of a salty snack this rare, threatened critter just couldn’t resist.
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Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks biologists captured images of the Eastern Spotted Skunk, which was once a common species until their numbers drastically declined in the 1940s due to changing habitats and resources, the department said in a Feb. 28 Facebook post.
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Wildlife officials have sought out the “rare and threatened” spotted skunks since at least 2017, hoping to learn more about the squirrel-sized creatures, McClatchy News previously reported.
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“Our biologists have been diligently setting up trail cameras with sardines as bait to try and locate this species in Kansas,” the post says. “Even though our trail camera images are blurry, you can easily tell the difference between an Eastern Spotted Skunk and the more common Striped Skunk.”
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Spotted skunks are smaller than their striped counterparts, and have a black body with broken white lines across their body — which can look like spots — as well as a white triangle on their foreheads. Both striped and spotted skunks can emit a musky, defensive odor, McClatchy News previously reported.
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Videos of skunks doing handstands before they spray have gone viral over the years. The National Park Service posted one as the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 and social distancing was required in parks and other public spaces.
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When they feel threatened, they can flip themselves into a handstand and shoot their smelly spray, McClatchy News previously reported.
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