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Nature Smart: Respect for skunks

An Eastern spotted skunk performs its famous handstand, a dramatic warning to would-be predators. Once widely trapped for its fur, the species has vanished from most of its former U.S. range. (Photo by Stan Tekiela)

You usually smell a skunk long before you see one. One moment the night air is soft and quiet; the next, it carries that unmistakable odor.
Most people don’t like it, but I slow down and look around because a skunk is much more than a walking stink bomb. It’s a beautifully marked, adaptable mammal with a remarkable defense system and an important place in the natural world.

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