Skunks and coyotes.

O

OKRattler

Well-known member
Saw one running down the ditch last night when me and a buddy were heading to get something to eat. The coyote crossed out in front of us and dropped a skunk in the middle of the road. About 6 or so miles later we see another coyote and it's less than 20 feet from a skunk. I can only assume it planned on getting a meal out of it but that's only a guess. The one carrying the skunk for sure did.

I never knew coyotes ate skunks. Who else had seen anything like that?
 
Last edited:

I have read on these forums in the past that coyotes will get skunks. I didn't figure anything would want one except buzzards, but someone said that skunk scent doesn't alarm a coyote. I figured it would since it's a distress sign. So now when I shoot a skunk near my cabin site, I don't worry about it and it doesn't seem to affect coyote action any that I can tell.

UPDATE:

Should have mentioned that I popped a skunk recently after getting a coyote earlier in the same night. The stink lasted for a few days and four days after the skunk shooting, I got another coyote.

Here's a video of the coyote and skunk shooting.




And four nights later, smell still in the air, this happened.



 
Last edited:
Back on the 1st of July I had just set out my call to hunt a fresh cut hay field. I decided to make one last look with my thermal scanner before calling. I saw what looked like a coyote following something small. I looked thru my thermal scope, and it was a coyote close behind a skunk. Thru the thermal, I couldn't say for sure the distance, but decided I might as well shoot the coyote since they were coming straight in my direction. I shot the coyote at approx 70 yds, and it turned out to be a very skinny female, black with a white blaze on her chest. I can't say for sure, but suspected she was going to make a meal out of the skunk.
I have a pic of the coyote, but never signed up on another site after photo***.
 
Don’t know about coyotes but the old timer that taught me what Little I know about fox trapping used nothing but skunk parts for bait, I used the essence, draws fox from an almost unbelievable distance
 
Parson, I trapped up that way in the seventies and would trap skunks on my fox line before the season started so my fox traps would have fox in them not skunks. The skunks got chopped up into chunk bait, skunk is still very attractive even in the dead of winter when temps(on the thermometer not wind-chill)are hitting -30. One of my favorite sets was to bury a skunk tail in a mound with just the tip sticking out the top and then put a dirt hole in either side of the mound with skunk chunk bait.

I did tan a few and made snowmobile mitts out of them.
 

Originally Posted By: AWS I did tan a few and made snowmobile mitts out of them.
Some of them are very pretty and no doubt would make a nice tan or garmet, but I don’t know if I could stand the stink enough to skin one out. Did you do anything particular to help with that?
 
I've seen a few down in West Texas that were almost white. I mean the white stripe down their back was much wider than any I've ever seen here. They are pretty creatures but that smell is unbelievable. No way I can ever skin one of those out.

I shot a coyote last Winter I think it was,that smelled like skunk. I just figured it had wondered across one and got sprayed. Now I'm not so sure it didn't kill one. I'd have never imagined I'd ever see one carrying a skunk. And it had killed that skunk no doubt. It was fresh and you talk about stink. That was bad....ridiculously bad.
 
If they don't spray when you kill them they don't smell that bad. I would shoot them with a 22 short in the chest. The chest shot lets the die without contracting all the muscles, a brain shot(also spreading potential rabies) causes the muscles to contract and spray. They made injection poles to inject a skunk and accomplish the same thing. Narrow stripes used to be more valuable than wide as there would be much more useable fur, I believe they used to call skunk coats Hudson Bay Sable.

As far as skinning if they don't spray they don't smell that bad and just be sure you don't hit the sent sack. Harvesting the scent with a hypodermic needle was a way to add a few more bucks to to your pocket. The scent is used in lure making and in the perfume industry(once cleaned of the smell it is a long lasting carrier for any scent added to it) I don't know if they still use it do to the advances in chemistry. A good wash in gasoline and then Dawn would clean the pelts up quite well.

https://vintagefashionguild.org/fur-resource/skunk/
 
Last edited:
I saw a coyote and a badger going at it one time.
No Idea who started the altercation.
We disturbed them and they both ran off in different directions.
Wished we had known what was going on sooner to watch the end.
 
Just earlier this year I witnessed a coyote trotting through a field with a skunk in his mouth. I have taken to adding nuisance skunks to my snare sites and sprayed or not the skunk is usually gone before the meat scraps.
 
Originally Posted By: SoftpointFor years I used skunk essence for a cover scent while calling.

Johnny Stewart sold a bunch of that stuff through the mail many years ago in Waco Texas..
 
I don't know how anyone could stand using skunk essence. I've been sprayed and it was bad enough I still feel nauseous when I smell one. I hate skunks with a passion. If I ever see a coyote coming to a call and it stops to kill a skunk I'm not killing it. That's a good coyote. Anything that actively hunts skunks and kills them is a good animal to keep around.

I believe the saying goes "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
 
Last edited:
As a youth I trapped a skunk and he went down a hole(on a drag) as I pulled him out I got sprayed in the face, that stuff burns. To this day skunk scent doesn't bother me too much.

Short story. I was working for the state while in highschool and we were living in a dorm up in the northwoods doing conservation projects for the state. One night I convinced a city kid that if you grab a skunk and pull it's tail between it's legs it couldn't spray. Well he got toughly sprayed big time. The rest of the guys in our crew made me share a room with him until the stink got gentle enough for him to move back in the dorm.

I find skunk scent on the breeze on a warm summer evening, a real harbinger of the coming fall.
 
Originally Posted By: OKRattlerI don't know how anyone could stand using skunk essence. I've been sprayed and it was bad enough I still feel nauseous when I smell one. I hate skunks with a passion. If I ever see a coyote coming to a call and it stops to kill a skunk I'm not killing it. That's a good coyote. Anything that actively hunts skunks and kills them is a good animal to keep around.

I believe the saying goes "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Having trapped many skunks as a NWCO the smell just grows on you..
 
AWS that article confirmed what my Grandpa had said about skunks in the depression and after. They went so far as to gather them up when they came across a family in the summer. He said if you laid a cream can down on it's side close by you could herd them towards it and they'd go into the dark hole. Then they'd pen them up till the fur was prime. One skunk was worth several days pay back then when farm help was 50 cents to a dollar a day.

A law requiring fur be labeled accurately, ie no fake names, killed off the skunk market, as "sable" sounds a lot better than "skunk". My dad said when he was a kid one of their cats adopted a baby skunk and raised it with the other kittens. Said it was perfectly docile and didn't cause any trouble, until one day she brought them all into Grandma's house. Nothing happened, but that skunk wasn't seen again after that...

The guy who puts up my coyotes, said he put up 50 skunks for a local a couple years ago. I've seen skunk bed spreads, and they are gorgeous!
 
A long time ago I asked a fur buyer what he'd pay for a skunk. He said don't even bother bringing one to him. That was pretty much the end of that conversation. I don't know of any fur buyer that wants them or opossums either one. I don't know if it's because of the smell or if there's no market for them. Maybe both.
 
Just shot a yote two weeks ago that was skunked up real bad. Back in the 60's I trapped and skinned a few skunks every season. It seemed to me that after a few minutes the smell just didn't bother me. I used to ship to F.C. Taylor in St. Louis I think, and Walter Carr in Southeastern Ma. don't think I got more than a couple bucks at the most. I was thirteen, fourteen, years old at the time.
 
I use scent tubes 1 or 2 at a time at my sets with urine at the call & skunk esscense somewhere on the way back to my seat & with glow markers on the tubes hung high to help keep the location of my call at night...….this helps me judge the coyotes position best I can and where they are in relation to my call when spotted.....tough where I call and i use the simple easy stuff to help... Good Luck!!
thumbup1.gif


p.s. im also not trying to cover my scent...….im only adding a bit more realism & curiosity to the sound they are called in on... Good Luck
thumbup1.gif


IMG_0068 by Stephen Reid, on Flickr

 
Last edited:
Back
Top