Striped skunks appear in 377 Connecticut records, reaching all eight counties but leaning toward New Haven and Fairfield, where field, lawn, and woodland edge meet in close quarters. It is a common animal that most people detect by its digging, or its scent, rather than by sight.
A nose for grubs
A skunk’s diet runs heavily to insects, grubs, beetles, crickets, and the larvae of ground-nesting wasps, which it digs out with strong foreclaws, leaving small conical holes in turf as the most common sign of its passing. Eggs, mice, carrion, and fallen fruit round out the menu. That flexible, ground-level foraging suits Connecticut’s patchwork of yards, pasture edges, and open woods, and coastal ground at Sherwood Island State Park and Rocky Neck State Park holds records from just that kind of mixed habitat.
Quiet winters, busy summers
Skunks are not true hibernators, but in Connecticut’s coldest weeks they den up, sometimes several females sharing one burrow, and venture out only on mild nights. The record follows suit, thinnest in January and building steadily from spring to its June and August highs, when insect prey is abundant and the year’s young begin foraging alongside their mother.
Status in Connecticut
NatureServe ranks the striped skunk S5, Secure, in Connecticut, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
