Striped skunks turn up across a wide slice of Montana, from the wetland edges of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to the shoreline cover of Flathead Lake and the brushy river-bottoms along the Missouri, wherever open ground meets brush or streamside cover for denning.
Records climb through spring to a July peak, nearly 30 times the December low, tracking the stretch when this year’s kits are becoming independent and moving on their own, making a normally low-key, mostly nocturnal animal easier for people to run into. NatureServe rates the species secure (S5) statewide, and Montana’s cold winters likely push this species into a much lower-activity state than the sharp seasonal record swing alone would suggest.
Full species profile
