Do skunks fight each other?

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Although female skunks may come together to rear their young and will, on occasion, share the same den sites to ensure they keep safe, male skunks are remarkable solitary animals. They will fight each other frequently, and for a vast array of reasons.



If food is scarce, males and females will fight each other in competition. Females will fight males off if they feel that the male poses a threat to her or her young, and males will always find any excuse to fight each other. This seems to be the case among most animal species, if we're being entirely honest about this …

The dominant males are the ones that survive. They are the ones that do well. They are the ones that get to mate with all the best females and, in doing so, ensuring that their genes are carried on — it's continuation of the species, and survival of the fittest. Dominant males are the ones that always find the best food. They're the biggest, strongest, toughest skunks. The skunk that struggles to find food is not going to become the “Alpha” male that all the females want to mate with.

As well as fighting over food, male skunks will also fight with each other over territory. Females group together, but males prefer to stay very much on their own. They are very territorial too, doing whatever they need to do in order to protect their little patch of home.

Finally, male skunks will fight each other over mating-ready females in the area. This is something that is commonly seen across the animal world.

One thing that must be noted when skunks come together to fight is that they rarely use the spraying reflex. It is believed that skunks remember that the other animal also has the same foul-spraying liquid, therefore, they just don't use it on each other.



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