Anyone see skunks eat rattlesnakes?

strousek

strousek

WKR
Joined
Sep 28, 2017
Messages
426
Location
Colorado
We live in a pretty rural area in northern Colorado with all sorts of fun wildlife to watch. This spring we have a big skunk that is living somewhere near the house. Weighing the options of letting this guy stay around and risking him getting in the chicken coop or worse spraying one of the dogs. One thing I read was that skunks are immune to rattlesnake venom and will actively hunt snakes. Has anyone seen this to be true? If this guy eats rattlers I will gladly let him hang around as long as he doesn't spray us!
 
Don't know about skunks,but I have seen a King snake eat one. On the flip side I had a skunk die under my cabin, WEW! took years and pounds of baking soda to get rid of that stink.
 
I have seen them eat dead rattlesnakes, but have never seen them kill one. From what I have heard, they are immune to the venom. Skunks rely on their fast reflexes to kill many small animals.
 
As long as we are sharing esoteric knowledge, squirrels will chew shed snake skins and ply the chewed material into their fur to mask their scent from live snakes.
 
Learned something new which is awesome as it does look like they are immune.

Handful of interactions with skunks and they've been indifferent about my presence. Like most animals, if you don't surprise them or harass them they kind of leave you alone; am sure there are butthole skunks out there. Is there an equivalent to snake avoidance training?

I'd consider keeping it around until he becomes nuisance at which point I'd look at what legal options are available to remedy the situation.
 
AZ_Hunter_2000 said:
Is there an equivalent to snake avoidance training?
Click to expand...
A local tv station had a live segment showing a snake avoidance training session with a dog, but the handler had the shock level turned up to nuclear with a dramatic dog and the dog might as well been bit in the nads by a snake the way it freaked out. I laughed at the goof, but I’m pretty sure not many folks ever used that trainer, at least not with a dog they liked. Lol
 
My only interaction with a skunk occurred in the Spring of my Freshman Year at Clemson. We were right in the middle of "mat drills" for football. This entailed waking up at 5 am to get to the training facility by 5:30. We were then made to run, perform agility drills, and general bs for an hour straight with only a couple of 5 minute water breaks. Pure misery for an hour, and then, depending on class schedule, you'd have to lift weights for another hour before class. Afternoon was actual Spring Training Practice. Sucked soooo bad. True physical exhaustion to the point that it was hard to get to sleep at night. They told us to eat 6-8000 calories per day. I did gain about 20 lbs of straight muscle during that time.

Anyway, one morning on the way to mat drills, I opened the door of my ground level apartment to find that there was a skunk nosing around in my neighbors trash 5 feet from me. I stood there for a solid 5 minutes contemplating whether I should let that joker spray me to see if I could get out of going. I finally decided that they would probably make me participate anyway and I'd still smell.

Only skunk encounter I've ever had.
 
AZ_Hunter_2000 said:
Learned something new which is awesome as it does look like they are immune.

Handful of interactions with skunks and they've been indifferent about my presence. Like most animals, if you don't surprise them or harass them they kind of leave you alone; am sure there are butthole skunks out there. Is there an equivalent to snake avoidance training?

I'd consider keeping it around until he becomes nuisance at which point I'd look at what legal options are available to remedy the situation.
Click to expand...


I'm picturing a stuffed skunk toy with some skunk piss on it. Hit the dog with @TaperPin's "nuclear" shock collar.
 
I was once at a trailhead and there was a Subaru Outback with 5 people and a dog packing up to leave. The dog got sprayed by a skunk while running around the parking lot. They said they had a 5 hour drive ahead of them.....
 
Rattle snakes are pit vipers they can sense heat. Don't know for how far. snakes taste the air with there tung. there sence of smell i dont think is very good but there toung picks up everything in the air.
 
Hoghead said:
Rattle snakes are pit vipers they can sense heat. Don't know for how far. snakes taste the air with there tung. there sence of smell i dont think is very good but there toung picks up everything in the air.
Click to expand...
Tongue… it’s a tongue.😬😬 (spelling nazi)

I’ve had four different dogs get sprayed, and one of the dogs came back in the doggy door at 2 am after getting hit… and proceeded to try very hard to rub the smell off his face on the carpet, the wall in the hall, the couch, the bed, the wall in the bathroom. After 3 days of carpet cleaning wall scrubbing laundry doing and dog bathing, I’m not a fan of skunks.

Our latest procedure. Close the doggy door at bed time. Also thoroughly skunk proofed the fence around the yard.

No idea if they eat rattlers but I’ve had far more trouble with skunks than buzzworms.
 
We got skunks in camp all the time, I've darn near stepped on them and they've been super chill. We have two dogs, one of them is flat stupid. He's been skunked I think 12 times now? We call him Skunkmaster 12,000 now. He leveled up since Skunkmaster 3,000. Anyway, other dog never got hit at all, she'll go back and sniff near it, but the stupid dog actually tries to bite the skunk and it actually takes aggressive physical contact to make these skunks spray. I saw enjoy your new striped smelly cat and if he runs off some rattlers it's a bonus. We don't kill skunks, coyotes, or raccoons near camp because rattlesnakes are a much worse enemy for us around there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Featured Video

Latest Articles

Back
Top