{"id":32646,"date":"2023-07-11T15:10:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T22:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32646"},"modified":"2023-07-11T15:12:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T22:12:07","slug":"skunk-kit-feeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32646","title":{"rendered":"Skunk kit feeds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sunday evening I watched two skunk kits forage. This was odd. Normally at this time of year these juvenile skunks would be accompanied (and supervised) by their mother, but these two were alone &#8212; no mother.\u00a0 Over two weeks earlier, I had posted <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32594\">Turkey Vultures<\/a> where I noted that the carcass of a skunk (now assumed to be the mother) was the object of the vulture&#8217;s feeding. Now, the clearly hungry kits were desperately looking for food on their own.<\/p>\n<p>The kits foraged extensively on the grass and the beach, but only the one that found something will be followed here.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32649\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The skunk would sniff the ground as it foraged and found something under a visually undistinguished spot on the beach. It then dug it up. There are very few animals which will bury a partial meal for later, and the most likely one around here is the coyote.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32651\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But what (rotting) delectable has this kit found? This picture shows what might be either a fin or feathers. As the likely burier was a coyote, this is probably the remains of a bird.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32652\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The skunk kit carried his prize to the longer grass, presumably for security. It spent considerable time trying to eat what looked like a rather long alimentary canal. Mind you, its molars are likely not well-developed. Granted, the kit is rather small, but it may have come from a raven. Photo by Cynthia.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32656\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709bsccf.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A shot of the meal shows what looks like feathers (lower left). Photo by Cynthia.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32657\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709as2ccf.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"780\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709as2ccf.jpg 780w, https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/skunk230709as2ccf-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Sunday evening I watched two skunk kits forage. This was odd. Normally at this time of year these juvenile skunks would be accompanied (and supervised) by their mother, but these two were alone &#8212; no mother.\u00a0 Over two weeks &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=32646\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mammals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32646"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32665,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32646\/revisions\/32665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}