The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS 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 unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Note 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 For Focus, Scope, Aims, and Policies, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/aims_scope For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/policies_various For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member 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 <htps://doi.org/10.6084/m9.fgshare.14650320.v1>). ample understory, likely for protecton from predators. The male appeared to follow the female before wrestling Contrarily, Harris et al. (2020) found that in dry prairies, on top of her at 04.59h and bitng her nape. They mated den site characteristcs were more important than for approximately two minutes, the male maintained a habitat characteristcs and breeding females preferred hold on the female’s nape intermitently throughout. small mammal burrows. To our knowledge, no studies The matng was very actve, and the pair appeared to have been published on Eastern Spoted Skunk matng be wrestling during much of the tme. The female ran or communicaton behaviors. of towards the east once the male let go and the male We used camera traps to monitor wildlife at Fort Hood, departed towards the south. an Army installaton in central Texas, USA. Fort Hood is This observaton adds to the minimal natural history a de-facto bioreserve with diverse habitats, protected knowledge of Eastern Spoted Skunks by providing from surrounding development (Hayden 2014). The insight into their matng behavior. Similar matng Eastern Spoted Skunk populaton decline is likely due behavior, including the male bitng the female while in part to habitat loss, making such bioreserves likely they wrestle, has been documented in Polecats Mustela important refugia for the species (Gompper & Hacket putorius (Blandford 1987) and captve Pygmy Spoted 2005). We set 20 Reconyx (Hyperfre and Ultrafre; Skunks Spilogale pygmaea, though these species Reconyx Inc., Holmen, Wisconsin USA) camera traps exhibited longer matng duratons (18 minutes–1 hour) 500m apart in each of seven grids (n= 140 camera trap than we documented. The captve spoted skunks locatons, we moved cameras every fve weeks) between had low concepton and parturiton success (1 out of December 2019 and May 2020 as part of a larger wildlife 9 pairings produced live ofspring; Teska et al. 1981) monitoring project aimed at understanding carnivore and it is unknown if wild spoted skunks have greater community structure (full details in Avrin et al. In Press). success. Eastern Spoted Skunks mate during March We programmed camera traps to take 10 photos each and April (Kinlaw 1995) similar to other carnivores with 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.