Skunks have a very strong defence mechanism! Let’s discover five stunning skunks facts for kids.
Skunks can dance! When a skunk is in a fight it uses it spray to defend itself, but if it doesn’t work then the skunk is left with no defence until it reloads again, so instead of spraying straight away, skunks do a little warning dance to scare the other animal away so that they can avoid using their spray if they don’t have to.
Scientists think that Skunks developed their spray attack because they are nocturnal… Doesn’t seem connected right? Well other animals like meerkats that are awake during the day are more likely to be preyed on by birds, so they have lookouts that warn the rest of the group of birds around. But skunks are awake at night so they are more likely to have an attacker on the ground with them, meaning their spray is more helpful for stunning their attacker.
We have talked so much about the spray, let’s learn about it a little more. The spray of a skunk can reach ten feet away, and it can hang around for days or even weeks! But it’s not just annoying, it’s quite scary, it can cause temporary blindness if you get it in your eyes!
A snake bite can’t kill a skunk. To eventually die from it, a skunk would have to get ten times as much venom as an animal of similar size.
Skunks are omnivores meaning they eat both plants and animals. They eat a variety of things including: fruits, berries, grass, plants, insects, worms, reptiles like lizards, bird eggs, small mammals and rodents. Skunks will attack a beehive and eat honey bees.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about skunks as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic these animals are, you can move on to learn about other animals like: Dogs, Foxes and Mammals.
Why not subscribe to our LearningMole Library for as little as £1.99 per month to access over 3200 fun educational videos.
Leave a Reply