Skunk (Mephitis mephitis)

Mother skunks give birth to litters of two to ten young each year, usually in May. The babies follow their mothers around for several months, leaving in late July or early August.

Photograph by Gordon and Cathy Illg/Animals Animals—Earth Scenes

Skunks are legendary for their powerful predator-deterrent—a hard-to-remove, horrible-smelling spray. A skunk's spray is an oily liquid produced by glands under its large tail. To employ this scent bomb, a skunk turns around and blasts its foe with a foul mist that can travel as far as ten feet (three meters).

Skunk spray causes no real damage to its victims, but it sure makes them uncomfortable. It can linger for many days and defy attempts to remove it. As a defensive technique, the spray is very effective. Predators typically give skunks a wide berth unless little other food is available.

There are many different kinds of skunks. They vary in size (most are house cat-sized) and appear in a variety of striped, spotted, and swirled patterns—but all are a vivid black-and-white that makes them easily identifiable and may alert predators to their pungent potential.

Skunks usually nest in burrows constructed by other animals, but they also live in hollow logs or even abandoned buildings. In colder climates, some skunks may sleep in these nests for several weeks of the chilliest season. Each female gives birth to between two and ten young each year.

Skunks are opportunistic eaters with a varied diet. They are nocturnal foragers who eat fruit and plants, insects, larvae, worms, eggs, reptiles, small mammals, and even fish. Nearly all skunks live in the Americas, except for the Asian stink badgers that have recently been added to the skunk family.

Map

Skunk Range

Audio

Fast Facts

Type:

Mammal

Diet:

Omnivore

Average life span in the wild:

3 years

Size:

Head and body, 8 to 19 in (20 to 48 cm); tail, 5 to 15 in (13 to 38 cm)

Weight:

7 oz to 14 lbs (198 g to 6 kg)

Group name:

Surfeit

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

Source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/skunk/

Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini)

Chameleon-like, giant Pacific octopuses can change their appearance to mimic rocks and highly patterned coral.

Photograph by Bob Cranston—Animals Animals - Earth Scenes

The giant Pacific octopus grows bigger and lives longer than any other octopus species. The size record is held by a specimen that was 30 feet (9.1 meters) across and weighed more than 600 pounds (272 kilograms). Averages are more like 16 feet (5 meters) and 110 lbs (50 kilograms).

They live to be about four years old, with both males and females dying soon after breeding. Females live long enough to tend fastidiously to their eggs, but they do not eat during this months-long brooding period, and usually die soon afterwards.

Giant Pacific octopuses have huge, bulbous heads and are generally reddish-brown in color. Like the other members of the octopus family, though, they use special pigment cells in their skin to change colors and textures, and can blend in with even the most intricately patterned corals, plants, and rocks.

They hunt at night, surviving primarily on shrimp, clams, lobsters, and fish, but have been known to attack and eat sharks as well as birds, using their sharp, beaklike mouths to puncture and tear flesh. They range throughout the temperate waters of the Pacific, from southern California to Alaska, west to the Aleutian Islands and Japan.

Highly intelligent creatures, giant Pacific octopuses have learned to open jars, mimic other octopuses, and solve mazes in lab tests. Their population numbers are unknown, and they do not currently appear on any lists of endangered or vulnerable animals. However, they are sensitive to environmental conditions and may be suffering from high pollution levels in their range.

Map

Giant Pacific Octopus Range

Fast Facts

Type:

Invertebrate

Diet:

Carnivore

Average life span in the wild:

3 to 5 years

Size:

9.75 to 16 ft (3 to 5 m)

Weight:

22 to 110 lbs (10 to 50 kg)

Did you know?

The appendages of octopuses are called arms, not tentacles.

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

Source : http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/giant-pacific-octopus/