I often make late-night walks down the street to the convenience store. Due to my work/sleep schedule, I can pretty much only do this late at night.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the same time that the local skunks begin prowling around the undeveloped lot between my home and the convenience store. Luckily, they’ve not yet gotten close enough to be a threat, but I always worry that one night I won’t be so lucky, and I’ll accidentally sneak up on one and spook it into spraying me.

I’ve looked online, and most of the articles I can find on the subject are about how to keep skunks from occupying your property in the first place. Which is great, but I don’t own the property they’re hanging out in, so I can’t do much about that. I couldn’t find many articles about skunk encounters that offer much advise beyond “stay away, dummy”. Which I obviously plan to do, but life doesn’t always go according to plan.

I live in the city, so it’s actually kinda weird that there are skunks this close to a populated area. The city life has prevented me from having a lot of experiences with skunks, and honestly I want to keep it that way. But does anybody have any advice on how to help ensure that skunks stay away while walking?

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    3 days ago

    Make plenty of sound so they aren’t startled by you coming up on them suddenly.

    If you do encounter one, step slowly away until they either run off, or you’re far enough away to change your route a little to avoid the specific skunk.

    Skunks are pretty damn versatile. Like raccoons, and possums, they adapt easily to urban and suburban settings. They’ve been in and around most cities for a long time, but you don’t know about them because they’re typically shy and avoid high traffic areas.

    If you do see one, chances are that moving to the other side of the street is plenty of space for them to not feel threatened.

    But, they don’t spray willy-nilly, so you’d likely have warning before it got that far. They’ll typically try to avoid confrontation at all, and just keep the business end pointed at you. If you aren’t coming closer, they’d much rather avoid wasting their spray.