Wisconsin’s 232 records for the striped skunk span 51 counties, from Dane and Waukesha in the south up through Portage to Burnett and Vilas in the northwoods, a genuinely statewide footprint for an animal most residents meet by smell before sight.
An edge omnivore built for farm country
A striped skunk eats almost anything it can find on or just under the ground: beetles, grubs, grasshoppers, mice, bird eggs, fallen fruit, and carrion. That broad diet, plus a need for open foraging ground with denning cover close by, fits Wisconsin’s patchwork of farmland, woodlots, and wetland margins. The place list reads the same way. Crex Meadows Wildlife Area and Mead Wildlife Area hold the most records, with Kettle Moraine State Forest-Southern Unit and Horicon National Wildlife Refuge adding marsh and edge habitat.
A winter denner, not a true hibernator
Skunks do not truly hibernate, but in cold weather they hole up in dens, sometimes several together, and stay underground through the worst stretches. Wisconsin’s calendar shows the effect plainly: counts fall to nothing in January, then climb through spring to a June peak, when insects are plentiful and newly independent young skunks begin foraging on their own. A second rise in October fits animals feeding heavily ahead of the denning season.
Status in Wisconsin
NatureServe ranks the striped skunk S5, Secure, in Wisconsin, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
