Striped skunk

Its main foods include amphibia, apple, bee, beetle, carrion, caterpillar, crab, fish, grasshopper, maize, reptile, vaccinium, vole and worm. Gestation lasts 63 days, litters average 5.1 young, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, not a threatened category.

Weight

2.09 kg – 5.05 kgsrc for Weight

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

12.5 years – 13.9 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Omnivoresrc for Diet

Main food

amphibia, apple, bee, beetle, carrion, caterpillar and 15 moresrc for Main food

Habitat

Not recorded

Gestation

59 days – 77 dayssrc for Gestation

Young per litter or clutch

5.1 – 7.8src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

11 monthssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

1.21src for Litters or clutches a year

Active

At night (nocturnal)src for Active

Lifestyle

Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The striped skunk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classMammalia
4. orderCarnivora
5. familyMephitidae
6. genusMephitis
7. SpeciesMephitis mephitis (Schreber, 1776)

Synonyms Mephitis mephatis, Viverra mephitis

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

CompareStriped skunk vs Hooded skunk

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{striped_skunk_2026,
  title = {Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/striped-skunk},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}