Striped skunks turn up in all fourteen Vermont counties, 743 records in all, led by Chittenden, Washington, and Windsor. The record belongs to the settled valleys, the farm edges, lawns, and wet meadows of the Champlain lowlands and the Connecticut River corridor, rather than the deep woods.
A grub hunter with a loaded tail
A skunk digs for a living, turning up beetle grubs, worms, mice, eggs, and fallen fruit, and the small conical holes it leaves in turf are often the first sign of one working a lawn or pasture. Its famous defense explains its confidence: sprayed musk deters nearly everything but great horned owls, so a skunk rarely hurries, and records from Green Mountain National Forest to the Lake Champlain state parks and Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge all come from that same unhurried night shift.
March out, October in
Skunks are not true hibernators, but through a Vermont winter they den communally, often several females together, and sleep through the worst cold. Reports climb sharply in March, when skunks emerge and the breeding season begins, and peak again in October, the last heavy feeding before the den.
Status in Vermont
NatureServe ranks the striped skunk S5, Secure, in Vermont, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
