Striped Skunk - Encyclopedia of Life (2024)

1999 California Academy of Sciencescc-by-nc-sa-3.0

Mephitis mephitis (Striped Skunk) is a species of mammals in the family skunks. They are native to The Nearctic. They are solitary, nocturnal omnivores. Individuals are known to live for 155 months and can grow to 399.55 mm. They have parental care (female provides care). They rely on running to move around.

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  • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/solitary
  • Definition: Solitary animals are those that spend a majority of their lives without others of their species, with possible exceptions for mating and raising their young. Antonyms for a solitary animal include a social animal or a colonial animal.
  • Attribution: https://www.definitions.net/definition/solitary+animal

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  • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/parentalCareFemale
  • Definition: the female feeds and nurtures offspring
  • Attribution: Richard M. Sibly, Christopher C. Witt, Natalie A. Wright, Chris Venditti, Walter Jetz, and James H. Brown. 2012. Energetics, lifestyle, and reproduction in birds. PNAS 109(27):10937-10941, doi:10.1073/pnas.1206512109

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EOL has data for 70 attributes, including:

  • age at eye opening

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/AgeAtEyeOpening
    • Definition: Age at which both eyes are fully open after birth.
    • Comment: Add to VT postnatal growth trait ontology
    • Attribution: Kate E. Jones, Jon Bielby, Marcel Cardillo, Susanne A. Fritz, Justin O''Dell, C. David L. Orme, Kamran Safi, Wes Sechrest, Elizabeth H. Boakes, Chris Carbone, Christina Connolly, Michael J. Cutts, Janine K. Foster, Richard Grenyer, Michael Habib, Christopher A. Plaster, Samantha A. Price, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Janna Rist, Amber Teacher, Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, John L. Gittleman, Georgina M. Mace, and Andy Purvis. 2009. PanTHERIA, a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648. http://esapubs.org/archive/ecol/E090/184/

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    21.98 days

  • bilaterally symmetric

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  • diet breadth

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/DietBreadth
    • Definition: Number of dietary categories eaten by an organism.

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    6

  • diet includes

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/Diet
    • Definition: Information about the items eaten by this organism.

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    seeds

    • URI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/PO_0009010
    • Definition: multi-tissue plant structures that develop from a plant ovule and have as parts a plant embryo enclosed in a seed coat.
    • Comment: Ontology Description: http://www.plantontology.org/Ontology Source: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/po.owl

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  • dispersal age

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/DispersalAge
    • Definition: Age at which young permanently leave the parent, parental group, social group or any associated territories.

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    84 days

  • ecomorphological guild

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/EcomorphologicalGuild
    • Definition: organisms that share certain morphological traits due to adaptation to similar environments and ecological roles

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    fossorial and/or ground dwelling

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/fossorialOrGround
    • Definition: An organism that is adapted to terrestrial life below ground, on or near the ground.

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  • geographic range (size of area)

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/GeographicRangeArea
    • Definition: The total extent of the geographic range of an organism.

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    12277338.73 km^2

  • habitat breadth

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/HabitatBreadth
    • Definition: Number of habitat layers used by an organism

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    1

  • home range

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/HomeRange
    • Definition: Size of the area within which everyday activities of individuals or groups (of any type) are typically restricted.
    • Attribution: Kate E. Jones, Jon Bielby, Marcel Cardillo, Susanne A. Fritz, Justin O'Dell, C. David L. Orme, Kamran Safi, Wes Sechrest, Elizabeth H. Boakes, Chris Carbone, Christina Connolly, Michael J. Cutts, Janine K. Foster, Richard Grenyer, Michael Habib, Christopher A. Plaster, Samantha A. Price, Elizabeth A. Rigby, Janna Rist, Amber Teacher, Olaf R. P. Bininda-Emonds, John L. Gittleman, Georgina M. Mace, and Andy Purvis. 2009. PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90:2648. http://esapubs.org/archive/ecol/E090/184/

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    2.18 km^2

  • inter-birth interval

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/InterBirthInterval
    • Definition: The length of time between successive births of a female.

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    365 days

  • litters per year

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/LittersPerYear
    • Definition: Number of litters per female per year

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    1.21

  • mating system

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/MatingSystem

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    not monogamous

    • URI: http://eol.org/schema/terms/notMonogamous

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Known occurrences, collected specimens and observations of Striped Skunk. View this species on GBIF

1999 California Academy of Sciencescc-by-nc-sa-3.0

Striped Skunk includes 13 children:

  • Mephitis mephitis avia Bangs 1898
  • Mephitis mephitis elongata Bangs 1895
  • Mephitis mephitis estor Merriam 1890
  • Mephitis mephitis holzneri Mearns 1897
  • Mephitis mephitis hudsonica Richardson 1829
  • Mephitis mephitis major (Howell 1901)
  • Mephitis mephitis mephitis (Schreber 1776)
  • Mephitis mephitis mesomelas Lichtenstein 1832
  • Mephitis mephitis notata (Howell 1901)
  • Mephitis mephitis occidentalis Baird 1858
  • Mephitis mephitis spissigrada Bangs 1898
  • Mephitis mephitis varians Gray 1837
  • see more
Striped Skunk
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