Skunks are highly adaptable, nocturnal omnivores, consuming both plant and animal matter. Their diet shifts based on the season and the availability of food sources. This flexibility allows them to thrive across diverse habitats, from woodlands to suburban neighborhoods, by exploiting whatever sustenance is most abundant.
Primary Food Sources: Invertebrates and Small Prey
The bulk of a skunk’s diet, especially during the warmer spring and summer months, consists of invertebrates. These insects and their larvae can constitute up to 70% of their food intake, making skunks effective natural pest controllers. They consume ground-dwelling arthropods such as beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, and earthworms, along with soft-bodied prey like snails and slugs. Skunks are particularly drawn to grubs (the larvae of moths and beetles), which they locate by scent just beneath the soil surface.
Beyond invertebrates, skunks hunt small vertebrates to supplement their diet with protein and fat. Their prey includes rodents like mice, voles, and shrews, as well as amphibians such as frogs and salamanders. They also raid the nests of ground-dwelling birds, consuming both the eggs and the hatchlings. This carnivorous diet is important as seasons change, providing energy reserves for colder months when insects are scarce.
Opportunistic Foraging: Plant Matter and Scavenging
While animal matter forms the core of their diet, skunks readily consume a variety of plant materials, especially when ripe and abundant. This includes seasonal items like berries, fruits, and nuts, which offer a high-calorie energy boost. They also eat roots, fungi, and grasses; their plant consumption increases significantly in the late summer and fall as they prepare for winter. In residential areas, skunks often consume cultivated crops, such as fallen apples, melons, and berries from gardens.
Skunks are consummate scavengers, a habit that brings them into frequent contact with human environments. They will exploit easily accessible, high-calorie food left outdoors, such as pet food, which is a major attractant. Birdseed spilled from feeders is another common target, providing an effortless meal of seeds and grains. Skunks routinely rummage through unsecured garbage cans and compost piles, taking advantage of discarded food scraps.
Skunk Hunting and Foraging Techniques
Skunks primarily rely on their highly developed senses of smell and hearing to locate food, compensating for their relatively poor eyesight. As they move slowly and methodically across an area, their acute nose allows them to detect the scent of grubs, earthworms, or small rodents buried underground. This olfactory-guided search often results in the characteristic foraging behavior of digging.
A skunk uses its long, non-retractable front claws to root around in the soil, leaving shallow, cone-shaped holes that are definitive signs of its presence. These holes are typically only a few inches deep, just enough to reach the insects or larvae beneath the surface. When hunting larger prey, skunks rely on a slow, persistent approach rather than speed, often using their claws to pin down small, active animals. Their nocturnal habits mean most foraging activity occurs under the cover of darkness, minimizing exposure to predators.