Baby Pong
October 14, 2017 9:33 AM Subscribe
No, not that kind—the smelly kind! Skunk babies are irresistible and adorable. Even mama cats like them. And no post is complete without a puppy. Bonus: 15 Skunk Facts.
(Cute skunks previously)
oh my CHRIST pendragon
posted by dismas at 9:38 AM on October 14, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by dismas at 9:38 AM on October 14, 2017 [5 favorites]
like there's obviously a less-than-great story there of wild skunks getting fed by humans but damned if i don't want to adopt a family of skunks now
posted by dismas at 9:39 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by dismas at 9:39 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I have encountered baby skunks in the wild and OMG they are so ridiculously cute its hard to resist getting close (but I did resist!)
posted by supermedusa at 10:00 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 10:00 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
I believe that all (almost all) mammal babies are cute, and they are cute not just to their species but to other species as well and this is an evolutionary trick to get everybody to take care of them. Who wants to take care of an ugly baby?
posted by charlesminus at 10:05 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by charlesminus at 10:05 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
In the "smelly kind" link, the person is braver than I am since the skunk hasn't had its scent glands removed. Even though it seems to be playing, no way would I get that close.
posted by AFABulous at 10:57 AM on October 14, 2017
posted by AFABulous at 10:57 AM on October 14, 2017
Cute, but the 'adorable' video is clueless. Skunks stomping is not playing. They stomp when they are scared. They are warning you that they are about to spray.
posted by eye of newt at 12:13 PM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by eye of newt at 12:13 PM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]
Cute, but the 'adorable' video is clueless.
Dude at around 0:55 is like "It's showing me its butt." Even if the only things you knew about skunk behaviour were things you picked up from watching Pepé Le Pew on Looney Tunes, you'd be outta there in a second. Dude is just like "Aw."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:52 PM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
Dude at around 0:55 is like "It's showing me its butt." Even if the only things you knew about skunk behaviour were things you picked up from watching Pepé Le Pew on Looney Tunes, you'd be outta there in a second. Dude is just like "Aw."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:52 PM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
While I lived in New Mexico, I had a skunks visiting me just about every night. I have tons of photos of them at my front door. And they are the cutest.
If you move slowly and carefully, you can get quite close. They let me get close to them all the time. If I moved too suddenly, they would stamp their little paws in warning. I never, ever got sprayed in my dozens of encounters.
I even have photos of 4 baby skunks moving in an amorphous black mass like so much cute Lovecraftian horror.
posted by nikitabot at 4:12 PM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
If you move slowly and carefully, you can get quite close. They let me get close to them all the time. If I moved too suddenly, they would stamp their little paws in warning. I never, ever got sprayed in my dozens of encounters.
I even have photos of 4 baby skunks moving in an amorphous black mass like so much cute Lovecraftian horror.
posted by nikitabot at 4:12 PM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
I used to live in semi-rural Rhode Island. Due to an absolute lack of night life, I would sometimes go out on the walkway for my apartment complex around dusk and watch the skunks wander around the back lawn. They were very task-oriented, it seemed.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:24 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:24 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
We have a bunch. Here are a couple of my own vids (Facebook, sorry).
Smelled a skunk, checked the camera.
Here's me scaring the crap out of a skunk.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:25 PM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
Smelled a skunk, checked the camera.
Here's me scaring the crap out of a skunk.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:25 PM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
My experience with skunks (aside from road kills) has been nervously tossing rocks at them to keep them out of the area of my tent. If I'd seen amorphous blobs of babies approaching my bike I'm sure I'd have liked them more. I do feel a little sorry for the hungry hawk though.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:57 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:57 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
My experience with skunks (aside from road kills) has been nervously tossing rocks at them to keep them out of the area of my tent.
That's a good way to make the area of your tent uninhabitable. I had a downstairs, second-floor neighbor who would toss bread on the ground from his balcony to attract skunks. When one got close enough, he'd throw something else, hard, to make the skunk spray. Then he'd rush into his closed-up apartment and slam the door. The other neighbors, who had their windows open, would get stunk up.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:27 PM on October 14, 2017
That's a good way to make the area of your tent uninhabitable. I had a downstairs, second-floor neighbor who would toss bread on the ground from his balcony to attract skunks. When one got close enough, he'd throw something else, hard, to make the skunk spray. Then he'd rush into his closed-up apartment and slam the door. The other neighbors, who had their windows open, would get stunk up.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:27 PM on October 14, 2017
I feel like a group of skunks should be called a flounce. A flounce of skunks.
posted by Hypatia at 8:05 PM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Hypatia at 8:05 PM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
While I lived in New Mexico, I had a skunks visiting me just about every night. I have tons of photos of them at my front door.
come on, now, you can't say that and not link us to any photos.
posted by numaner at 11:12 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
come on, now, you can't say that and not link us to any photos.
posted by numaner at 11:12 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
that baby is literally better than me at ping pong
posted by numaner at 11:13 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by numaner at 11:13 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
(NB: I am a native of an island land mass bereft of skunks — they're an exotic zoo inmate over here.)
I know this is wrong of me, but I'm now wishing someone would breed a strain of glandless skunk who could be kept as pets.
posted by cstross at 2:52 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
I know this is wrong of me, but I'm now wishing someone would breed a strain of glandless skunk who could be kept as pets.
posted by cstross at 2:52 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
When I was 3-4 we lived in the Brandywine section of Villa Park outside Chicago and there was a skunk. A German couple who had never seen a skunk bought the townhouse next to us. Here kitty kitty. Spray.
It's odd. We live within an area where they are supposed to be but with all the nocturnal traipsing around in the woods we do we've never seen one. Not even roadkill. Sometimes I smell skunk but the one time I tried to track the smell we discovered a grow operation with trip wires and shit and I wound up carefully coaching the kids out of a kill zone so we don't do that anymore.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:45 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's odd. We live within an area where they are supposed to be but with all the nocturnal traipsing around in the woods we do we've never seen one. Not even roadkill. Sometimes I smell skunk but the one time I tried to track the smell we discovered a grow operation with trip wires and shit and I wound up carefully coaching the kids out of a kill zone so we don't do that anymore.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:45 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
I saw skunks a few times in Boston. I've smelled them a few times since moving to MN, and according to the DNR they're more likely to have rabies than any other animal in the state! Which is a bummer because now i've got Skunk Fever and want to carry one on my shoulder and bring it to class with me.
posted by dismas at 8:17 AM on October 15, 2017
posted by dismas at 8:17 AM on October 15, 2017
cute videos. the baby playing pong is just adorable.
but the skunk.. oh no. I could have run like never before.
posted by reekbeek12 at 9:10 AM on October 15, 2017
but the skunk.. oh no. I could have run like never before.
posted by reekbeek12 at 9:10 AM on October 15, 2017
When I was younger (around '89-'90), I "inherited" a full-grown male skunk from my cousin. They were expecting a baby and could no longer keep him. The skunk's name was "Stripe" (I know, not very original, but I wasn't the one who named him).
At the time, I was living in a small apartment here in Montreal, and I already had an adult male ferret as a pet.
From what we knew, Stripe had never actually been de-scented, and had never sprayed anyone. He was an absolute sweetheart -- super chubby; I mean, a good 30-35 lbs of chubby! If I wanted to pick him up, I had to lean him on my hip, like a toddler, because at only 5' in height, he was too big and heavy to easily fit in my arms.
He had his own cage and was quite content to be in it, and him and my ferret Jhereg would take turns having the run of the apartment for a few hours. When he would tire, he would simply waddle back to his cage, crawl up over the edge and plop down inside and fall asleep.
His front paws were significantly shorter than the back, and when we used to play "tag" in my apartment, when I stopped turned and said "boo", he would stop so short that he would "pop a wheelie" and his back legs would rise slightly in the air. Occasionally he would stop so fast that he actually did a head-over-heels tumble!
Much like the baby skunk in the video above, he *loved* getting tummy scritchies -- he looked like little kids when you tickle them that they laugh so hard that no more noise comes out of them. When I'd stop, he'd look at me all mopey, like "why'd you stop?". He was so chubby though, that to keep him on his back for tummy scritchies, I'd have to wedge my feet under each side of his backbone, so he wouldn't just roll over to the side.
(Sorry no photos -- got lost in one of my many moves over the years.)
posted by Jade Dragon at 5:38 PM on October 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
At the time, I was living in a small apartment here in Montreal, and I already had an adult male ferret as a pet.
From what we knew, Stripe had never actually been de-scented, and had never sprayed anyone. He was an absolute sweetheart -- super chubby; I mean, a good 30-35 lbs of chubby! If I wanted to pick him up, I had to lean him on my hip, like a toddler, because at only 5' in height, he was too big and heavy to easily fit in my arms.
He had his own cage and was quite content to be in it, and him and my ferret Jhereg would take turns having the run of the apartment for a few hours. When he would tire, he would simply waddle back to his cage, crawl up over the edge and plop down inside and fall asleep.
His front paws were significantly shorter than the back, and when we used to play "tag" in my apartment, when I stopped turned and said "boo", he would stop so short that he would "pop a wheelie" and his back legs would rise slightly in the air. Occasionally he would stop so fast that he actually did a head-over-heels tumble!
Much like the baby skunk in the video above, he *loved* getting tummy scritchies -- he looked like little kids when you tickle them that they laugh so hard that no more noise comes out of them. When I'd stop, he'd look at me all mopey, like "why'd you stop?". He was so chubby though, that to keep him on his back for tummy scritchies, I'd have to wedge my feet under each side of his backbone, so he wouldn't just roll over to the side.
(Sorry no photos -- got lost in one of my many moves over the years.)
posted by Jade Dragon at 5:38 PM on October 15, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by Pendragon at 9:36 AM on October 14, 2017 [16 favorites]