Hooded skunks reach the United States only in its far southwest corner, and New Mexico’s Peloncillo Mountains, Animas Valley, and Gray Ranch sit right in that narrow sliver of Chihuahuan Desert country near the Mexican border. That’s rocky, brushy terrain with scattered ranches, a very different setting from the piñon-juniper mountains where striped skunks turn up across the rest of the state.
With just 2 records since 2000, one from Hidalgo County and one from Catron County, and a state rank of S2, Imperiled, this is a genuinely uncommon animal in New Mexico even though its worldwide status is secure. The most recent confirmed sighting on record dates to 2017, itself a sign of how rarely anyone documents this skunk here.
Both records fall in August, but with only two, that timing says nothing about a real seasonal signal.
Full species profile
