Skunks Deserve a New Family, Researchers Say

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lucky skunks. This summer, the little stinkers are likely to be reclassified by biologists into a family all their own.

That means they won’t have to be associated with weasels anymore.

“All the genetic data out there shows that skunks just aren’t fitting in the Mustelid family. They’ve simply been misidentified,” says Jerry Dragoo, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico who conveniently lacks a sense of smell.

“I’ve learned to say that I don’t smell well,” he says.

Dragoo, 36, does not have that telltale scent on this day, but only because he has not recently been sprayed. Sometimes he can clear a crowded room just by stepping inside.

Although the odor may create social problems, Dragoo’s ability to work closely with the creatures has made it possible for him to conduct research that commands scientific attention.

His most recent finding, published in the summer issue of the Journal of Mammalogy, is that skunks should be removed from the Mustelid family and placed into their own family, called Mephitidae.

Dragoo and co-author Rodney Honeycutt, a professor at Texas A&M; University in College Station, Texas, say the new skunk family should consist of the hog-nosed, striped and spotted skunks of North America as well as a stink badger from Asia.

American Assn. of Mammalogy secretary H. Duane Smith at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, says the article was reviewed and approved by leading biologists from around the country.

The change will be adopted in biology textbooks and by mammalogists unless “someone else submits an article contradicting their findings” within the next few months, says Smith.

The skeptics are out there.

“The situation was already bad, but this may make it even more confusing,” says Chris Wozencraft, a mammalogist and assistant professor at Lewis and Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.

Wozencraft is concerned that under Dragoo and Honeycutt’s proposal, the Asian stink badger does not geographically fit in with the three North American species.

He believes it might be wiser to leave the skunks in the Mustelid family rather than create yet another poorly connected family.

But he says the analysis by Dragoo and Honeycutt was “superb and will likely spur more research.”

“The evidence is accumulating to show that the skunks are very different from the rest of their Mustelid family,” Wozencraft says.

David Hillis, a zoology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is less skeptical. He says Dragoo and Honeycutt’s recommendation will help “straighten out a branch on the tree of life, and the tree of life is the backbone of all biology.”

It is important to know correct relationships between species because they are used to understand how viruses and epidemics can spread, says Hillis.

One of the most important backers of Dragoo and Honeycutt’s proposal is Don Wilson, director of biodiversity programs and curator of mammals at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Wilson reviewed their paper and says it is likely he will include the changes in the next edition of “Mammal Species of the World,” widely considered an authority on mammals.

“These guys are really the experts on this subject, and their paper is pretty persuasive,” he says.

Dragoo, who has been researching skunks for about 12 years, first stumbled onto the possibility that they were misclassified while doing a DNA analysis to learn what characteristics they shared with the other animals in the Mustelid family.

“I looked at those results and figured I must have done something wrong. The skunks just didn’t fit in,” he says.

So Dragoo ran all the tests again. This time when he got the same results, he decided to shift his research.

Working with Honeycutt, he compared skunk DNA with that of Mustelids such as otters, badgers and weasels.

The researchers also compared the skunk DNA with that of animals in other families, including sea lions, coyotes and bears, using frozen tissue samples borrowed from research institutes as far away as London and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dragoo and Honeycutt found that although the skunks shared some characteristics with the animals in the Mustelid family, they also had those same characteristics in common with animals in other families.

And they found that the skunks had many characteristics that set them apart from the rest of the animals in the Mustelid family in which they were placed 150 years ago.

“They just wouldn’t fit,” says Dragoo.

For Dragoo, the research has been a labor of love as well as one of science. He adores “the cute little critters.” There are four in his house, and another six in his yard.

His skunks still have their scent glands, although most people who keep skunks as pets have the glands removed.

Pet skunk owner Shelor Brumbeloe in Augusta, Ga., says she is pleased with Dragoo’s research and findings. But she says her skunks--Barron, Sadie, Major, Pierrot, Hercules and Zeus--all of whom have their scent glands removed--are Brumbeloe family first and Mephitidae family second.

“I’m bothered that they were incorrectly classified,” she says. “The skunk is totally different in many ways from the other Mustelids.”

Ms. Brumbeloe says she hopes the technical change will help bring a bit more respect to her own pets, whose species is often maligned.

“They are all rotten, spoiled babies,” she says of her pets, “but they don’t smell bad at all.”

The new skunk family name is also welcome at Phillips University in Enid, Okla., where the school’s mascot is “L’il Hay,” a cute black skunk.

“Obviously we’re very excited that skunks have gained the recognition they deserve by being classified in their own family,” says Mike Sohn, a vice president of the private church-related liberal arts university.

“L’il Hay and all his skunk brothers and sisters deserve respect,” he says.

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Making Scents of Skunks

A brief look at skunks:

Scientific name: Mephitidae.

Definition: Latin for “noxious gas.”

Old family: Skunks have been classified as a Mustelid--along with badgers, otters and weasels--for 150 years.

New family: In July their subfamily Mephitidae escalated to an independent family, made up of hog-nosed, striped and spotted skunks of North America as well as a stink badger from Asia.

Regions: Found in all 48 contiguous states, Canada and Mexico.

Stink: Main line of defense is ability to spray; using two glands containing the noxious musk, able to aim and fire the yellow foam up to 16 feet.

Cleaning up: Once sprayed, there are a number of ways to try to get rid of odor, although most skunk researchers and owners agree the only definitive method is patience. With time, the smell dissipates. Other solutions include a mixture of water, soap and baking soda; tomato juice; or pet shop enzymes.

Life span: Skunks usually live only one or two years in the wild, but have been known to live up to 20 years with human care.

Pets: “Domestic” skunks with scent glands removed are legal as pets in 18 states. Owners say they are clever, persistent and cute.

Food: They eat grubs and worms, insects, fruits, vegetables and small animals.

Associated Press