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Mating behavior of Eastern Spotted Skunk Spilogale putorius Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mephitidae) revealed by camera trap in Texas, USA
Alexandra C. Avrin, Charles E.Pekins & Maximillian L. Allen
26 May 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 6 | Pages: 18660–18662 DOI: 10.11609/jot.6642.13.6.18660-18662
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Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2021 | 13(6): 18660–18662 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) OPEN ACCESS htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6642.13.6.18660-18662
#6642 | Received 31 August 2020 | Final received 16 April 2021 | Finally accepted 30 April 2021 NOTE
Matng behavior of Eastern Spoted Skunk Spilogale putorius Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mephitdae) revealed by camera trap in Texas, USA
Alexandra C. Avrin 1 , Charles E.Pekins 2 & Maximillian L. Allen 3
1,3 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, 1102 S. Goodwin, Urbana, IL 61801, U.S.A. 2 Fort Hood Natural Resources Management Branch, United States Army Garrison, 1939 Rod & Gun Club Loop, Fort Hood, TX 76544 3 Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois, 1816 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820, U.S.A. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected]
Eastern Spoted Skunks Spilogale putorius are an nights (Hacket et al. 2007; Eng & Jachowski 2019). understudied small carnivore listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by Minimal focus has been on studying the demographics the Internatonal Union for Conservaton of Nature (IUCN or matng behavior of Eastern Spoted Skunks compared Red List; Gompper & Jachowski 2016), and Vulnerable to areas such as habitat preferences and distributon, or Imperiled in most states across their range (Trani possibly due to the overshadowing knowledge gaps in et al. 2007). Prairie Spoted Skunks Spilogale putorius these areas. Yet, demographic and matng behavioral interrupta are listed as a Species of Concern by the informaton is crucial for efectve management and United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS; USFWS conservaton and should be a focal point for species of 2012). Eastern Spoted Skunks were a common furbearer concern. For most solitary carnivores such as skunks, species throughout the eastern and midwestern United the distributon of females determines the distributon States (Kinlaw 1995; Sasse 2017; Eng & Jachowski 2019), of males during the matng season (Sandell 1989), and before sufering a notable range-wide decline in the male Eastern Spoted Skunk home range size grows mid-1900s (Gompper & Hacket 2005). The cause of this substantally during matng season suggestng questng decline and factors shaping their current distributon are behavior (Lesmeister et al. 2009), although no study has not well understood, although overexploitaton, habitat directly examined this. The only detailed demographic loss, and pestcides likely contributed (Thorne et al. 2017; study with cause specifc mortality for Eastern Spoted Eng & Jachowski 2019). As a result, current research has Skunks found a low mean annual survival of 0.354 primarily focused on quantfying abundance, occupancy, (95% CI= 0.339–0.368) with similar estmates across and habitat relatonships (Lesmeister et al. 2009; Thorne age and sex categories (Lesmeister et al. 2010). Two et al. 2017; Perry et al. 2018; Eng & Jachowski 2019), studies monitoring Eastern Spoted Skunk den sites and determining efectve methods of detecton which documented food provisioning by females to juveniles, is ofen as low as 1.6 or 2.8 detectons/100 camera trap demonstratng parental care and providing informaton
Editor: Giovanni Amori, CNR-Research Insttute on Terrestrial Ecosystems, Rome, Italy. Date of publicaton: 26 May 2021 (online & print)
Citaton: Avrin, A.C., C. Pekins & M.L. Allen (2021). Matng behavior of Eastern Spoted Skunk Spilogale putorius Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Mephitdae) revealed by camera trap in Texas, USA. Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(6): 18660–18662. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5957.13.6.18660-18662
Copyright: © Avrin et al. 2021. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.
Funding: Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works; USA Army Corps of Engineers-Engineering Research and Development Center.
Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests.
Acknowledgements: We thank P. Wolf, J. Sperry, M. Ward, and Illinois Natural History Survey for logistcal support. We thank Fort Hood Natural Resources Management Branch for support and funding.
18660 Matng behavior of Eastern Spoted Skunk Avrin et al. J TT
Figure 1. Photographs via camera trap of Eastern Spoted Skunks matng on Fort Hood Army Installaton. Photographs show the male on top of the female and bitng her nape in the frst picture but not the second. The date and tme are documented in upper lef corner of each photographs.
about prey selecton (mainly herpetofauna and small tme the moton sensor was triggered with no delay mammals in these studies, Sprayberry & Edelman 2016; between triggers. We took a total of 180,562 photos Thorne & Waggy 2017). Like other solitary carnivores, over 4,908 trap nights, including 2,224 independent male Eastern Spoted Skunks likely mate with many capture events of carnivores and 56 independent females during a matng season and do not remain capture events of Eastern Spoted Skunks (minimum with any female or contribute to ofspring care (Sandell tme between independent captures= 30 minutes). 1989). Other similar studies focused primarily on den On 15 April 2020 at 04.57h one of our cameras site selecton which is important for adult survival as captured images of two Eastern Spoted Skunks matng well as the care and protecton of ofspring. Sprayberry (Figure 1). The skunks were in front of the camera for six & Edelman (2018) found that in forests, Eastern Spoted minutes, producing 200 images (Supplementary Material Skunks preferred to den in dense vegetaton with 1
Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2021 | 13(6): 18660–18662 18661 J TT Matng behavior of Eastern Spoted Skunk Avrin et al. defned breeding seasons in North America. Although Gompper, M. & D. Jachowski (2016). Spilogale putorius. The IUCN Red we found no research on how Eastern Spoted Skunks List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T41636A45211474. Downloaded on 28 July 2020. htps://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS. fnd mates, most other solitary carnivores use scent T41636A45211474.en marking to fnd and select mates (Allen et al. 2015, Kean Hacket, H.M., D.B. Lesmeister, J. Desanty-Combes, W.G. Montague, J.J. Millspaugh & M.E. Gompper (2007). Detecton rates of Eastern et al. 2011). It is possible Eastern Spoted Skunks share Spoted Skunks (Spilogale putorius) in Missouri and Arkansas using these and other behavioral and demographic traits live-capture and non-invasive techniques. American Midland with other carnivores, but further research is needed Naturalist 158: 123–131. Harris, S.N., T.J. Doonan, E.L.H. Ragheb & D.S. Jachowski (2020). Den to understand how they fnd and select mates, their site selecton by the Florida Spoted Skunk. The Journal of Wildlife reproductve success, and other aspects that afect the Management 84(1): 127–137. fecundity of wild populatons. As a species of concern Hayden, T.J. (2014). U.S. military installatons as bioreserves: a case study from Fort Hood, Texas, pp. 101–108. In Harmon, R.S., S.E. across its range, such informaton could prove crucial to Baker & E.V. McDonald (eds.). Military Geosciences in the Twenty conservaton and management eforts. First Century. Geological Society of America. North Carolina, 215pp. Our detecton of Eastern Spoted Skunks matng Kean, E.F., C.T. Muller & E.A. Chadwick (2011). Oter scent signals age, sex, and reproductve status. Chemical Senses 36(6): 555–564. highlights the utlity of camera traps for documentng Kinlaw, A. (1995). Spilogale putorius. Mammalian Species 511: 1–7. rarely observed behaviors while monitoring wildlife Lesmeister, D.B., M.E. Gompper & J.J. Millspaugh (2009). Habitat (Caravaggi et al. 2020). Depending on the study design, selecton and home range dynamics of Eastern Spoted Skunks in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas, USA. Journal of Wildlife remote recording may allow for documentaton of Management 73(1): 18–25. rarely exhibited behaviors unbiased by human presence Lesmeister, D.B., J.J. Millspaugh, M.E. Gompper & T.W. Mong (2010). Eastern Spoted Skunk (Spilogale putorius) survival and cause- (Pesendorfer et al. 2018; Farías-González & Vega-Flores specifc mortality in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas. American 2019; Caravaggi et al. 2020). Adjustng camera setngs Midland Naturalist 164: 52–60. (i.e., increasing the number of pictures taken per Perry, R.W., D.C. Rudolph & R.E. Thill (2018). Capture-site characteristcs for Eastern Spoted Skunks in mature forests during trigger, decreasing lag tmes between triggers, or taking summer. Southeastern Naturalist 17(2): 298–308. videos) can further improve the likelihood of capturing Pesendorfer, M.B., S. Dickerson & J.W. Dragoo (2018). Observaton of behaviors. We encourage researchers to publish such tool use in Striped Skunks: how community science and social media help document rare natural phenomena. Ecosphere 9(11): e02484. documentaton of rare or novel behaviors as they add htps://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2484 to the collectve knowledge and inspire more in-depth Sandell, M. (1989). The mating tactics and spacing patterns future research. of solitary carnivores, pp. 164–182. In: Gittleman J.L. (eds). Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. Springer, Boston, MA, 620pp. References Sasse, D.B. (2017). Distributon of the Eastern Spoted Skunk, Spilogale putorius, in the early twenteth century. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science 71: 219–220. Allen, M.L., H.U. Witmer, P. Houghtaling, J. Smith, L.M. Elbroch & Smith, T. (2019). Fort Hood Integrated Natural Resources Management C.C. Wilmers (2015). The role of scent marking in mate selecton Plan Final Update 2019-2023. Prepared by Whitetail Environmental by female pumas (Puma concolor). PLoS One 10: e0139087. htps:// LLC for Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Fort doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0139087 Hood, Texas, 265pp. Avrin, A.C., C.E. Pekins, J.H. Sperry, & M.L. Allen (In Press). Evaluatng Sprayberry, T.R. & A.J. Edelman (2016). Food provisioning of kits by the efcacy and decay of lures for improving carnivore detectons a female Eastern Spoted Skunk. Southeastern Naturalist 15(4): with camera traps. Ecosphere. 53–56. Blandford, P.R.S. (1987). Biology of the polecat Mustela putorius: a Sprayberry, T.R. & A.J. Edelman (2018). Den-site selecton of Eastern literature review. Mammal Review 17(4): 155–198. Spoted Skunks in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Journal of Caravaggi, A., A.C. Burton, D.A. Clark, J.T. Fisher, A. Grass, S. Green, Mammalogy 99(1): 242–251. C. Hobaiter, T.R. Hofmeester, A.K. Kalan, D. Rabaiot & D. Rivet Teska, W.R., E.N. Rybak & R.H. Baker (1981). Reproducton and (2020). A review of factors to consider when using camera traps to development of the Pygmy Spoted Skunk (Spilogale pygmaea). The study animal behavior to inform wildlife ecology and conservaton. American Midland Naturalist 105(2): 390–392. Conservaton Science and Practce 2(8): e239 Thorne, E.D. & C. Waggy (2017). First reported observaton of Eng, R.Y.Y. & D.S. Jachowski (2019). Evaluatng detecton and food provisioning to ofspring by an Eastern Spoted Skunk, a occupancy probabilites of Eastern Spoted Skunks. The Journal of small carnivore. Northeastern Naturalist 24(1): 1–4. htps://doi. Wildlife Management 83(5): 1244–1253. org/10.1656/045.024.0108 Farías-González, V. & C.N. Vega-Flores (2019). Spoted skunks Thorne, E.D., C. Waggy, D.S. Jachowski, M.J. Kelly & W.M. Ford (2017). (Spilogale angustfrons) photo-caputred following gray foxes Winter habitat associaton of Eastern Spoted Skunks in Virginia. The (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in tropical dry forest in central Mexico. Journal of Wildlife Management 81(6): 1042–1050. Journal of Arid Environments 160: 25–31. Trani, M.K., W.M. Ford & B.R. Chapman (eds.) (2007). The Land USFWS (2012). Proposed Rules. Federal Register 77(233): 71759– Manager’s Guide to the Mammals of the South. The Nature 71771. Conservancy, North Carolina, USA, 546pp. Gompper, M.E. & H.M. Hacket (2005). The long-term, range-wide decline of a once common carnivore: the Eastern Spoted Skunk (Spilogale putorius). Animal Conservaton 8: 195–201. Threatened Taxa
18662 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2021 | 13(6): 18660–18662
The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by OPEN ACCESS publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
May 2021 | Vol. 13 | No. 6 | Pages: 18411–18678 Date of Publicaton: 26 May 2021 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2021.13.6.18411-18678
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