Life-Histories of Northern Animals; An Account of the Mammals of Manitoba Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ... may find the true Mephitis mephitis (Schreber) or Canada Skunk. LIFE-HISTORY. The present species is found in every part of south-RANGE..-. IN MANIwestern Mamtoba, but is scarce in the prne forest to the north-ToBA east. Its greatest numbers are found in the broad pond and poplar belt from Dufferin to Dawson. /Its favourite localities are the edges of the woods and ENVI lmarshes, I where sunlight and cover mingling provide it with abundzifit food, as well as warmth and shelter. (_It likes the dense forest less than it does the open prairie.) The traveller on the Souris Plains is sure to meet with some Skunks or have them visit his camp by night, but the great pine forest is almost skunkless.: fNM(j:: e The home-range of each individual is doubtless very small. The creature s powers and mode of life preclude the possibility of its roaming far afield. I have often followed its tracks in the early or late snow, from the den through many places and adventures in quest of food, then back to the den, to learn that at no time did it go more than two or three hundred yards from home. In warm weather, because more active, it may go farther, but this is doubtful, because food is more plentiful then and it is still less forced to travel. I believe a half-mile radius would reach the Ultima Thule of its ordinary wanderings. ABUN-In the dry part of the pond and poplar belt of Manitoba, DANCE.. it would be safe to estimate the Skunk at 1 to every square mile. In the prairie region, it is probably a fifth as numerous, and in the pine forest the number may be again divided by 5. This would give us a Skunk population of some 20,000. To approach the problem from another side, the Hudson s Bay Company exports about 10,000 Skunk skins eac