#mephitid

[fawnrats]

[image description: a cartoony, shaded drawing of the side of a spotted skunk's head. the light is coming from the bottom left, illuminating their neck but leaving their face somewhat shrouded in darkness. they have a neutral expression on their face, although their resting face looks slightly angry. they are looking to the left and have dark eyes and fur, a white spot above their ear, a white spot on their nose bridge, a pink nose and a squiggly horizontal white stripe running from below their ear down their neck. end of image description]

[snowytiger]

doodling doodle world doodles 48: klydaskunk

THE SCRUNKLY, THE SILLY, THE RABID DOG, THE CREATURE, THE SOPPING WET BEAST (can you tell i love klydaskunk)

[antiqueanimals]

Along Four-Footed Trails; Wild Animals of the Plains as I Knew Them. Written by Ruth A. Cook, with illustrations by Mabel Williamson. 1903.

Internet Archive

[printondemandart]

The Patagonian Skunk by Joseph Wolf Postcard

Animal Illustration: Designs & Collections on Zazzle

[skunkes]

rikki tikki tavi in the movie is modeled after a weasel or a stoat despite him being a mongoose. (he was also directly inspired by that cute squirrel) It's been known for a long time that mongooses aren't mustelids and are therefore unrelated to weasels, but because they're both long carnivores and weasels are more common (and cuter) than mongooses, they get lumped together. A more recent development (1990s) is that SKUNKS aren't mustelids. They're their own family (mephitids). But! the connection I made initially was: cute squirrel -> rikki tikki tavi -> looks like weasel -> looks like skunk

yeeeeeees i know about the smunks being their own thing part!! i still group em together though... smunk is just fat weasel/stoat/ferret honestly....... but also either way i lump squirrels and smunker together because of my stylistic choices that make ppl confuse him for a squirrel so its all connected anyway... dis is literally him

[myriadeyed]

Also, something incredibly frustrating for me:

I've said I'm a Musteloidea cladotherian, but for the most part, only experience shifts and familiarity with ailurids, procyonids, and mustelids. I've had skunk shifts, but I don't feel close to mephitids nearly to the same degree I do other musteloids. And of course they're the more distantly related of the musteloid superfamily. If only there was a taxonomic name for everything closer to red pandas than red pandas are to skunks. A sub-superfamily. I'd adopt it as my cladotype in a heartbeat. But musteloid cladotherian has to work for me because this is way too complicated to explain every time I want to describe my kintype. Labels are everything huh (sarcastic)

[yqbtufupmq]

Mustelid fun fact:

Many species of mustelid and mephitid share the name "badger". However, badgers do not form a valid clade, and are not a taxonomic rank.

[coppercookie]

My favourite mephitids

[seaglassandeelgrass]

*bleurch* this is the SECOND time this week i've been able to TASTE the eau-de-skunk seeping in from outside

[the-faunal-frontier]

Mephitid Appreciation

I just want to draw it to everyone’s attention that nobody likes skunks and stink badgers as much as they should, and its honestly a crime. I mean, look! Just look:

Majestic ruler of the underbrush!

Handsome and dignified gentleman!

An absolute doll!

Eccentric cousin with a beautiful soul!

It is really a travesty that they don’t get more attention. I mean, plenty of mammals smell bad! Minks? Stink. Wolverines? Also called “skunk bears” cause they stank. The European polecat (and by extension, the ferret) even has “putorius”. PUTORIUS. Latin for “stink”, if you’ve forgotten. 

Let’s take a step back and look outside of the Musteloids at some other mammals. Foxes? Fetid. Cats? More like catastrophe! Hyenas? Horrible! Pangolins? POSSIBLY SEVEN TIMES WORSE THAN SKUNK SMELL. Not to mention that humans secrete more smells than many mammals (it’s just that we’re sort of noseblind, I guess.)

I mean, can we deny that Mephitidae contains some of the mightiest weilders of long-range chemical warfare? Of course not! I mean, when you’re literally BLINDINGLY noxious, you’ve earned a place in the pantheon of masterful malodor. BUT, if I may, THEY’RE STILL

SO

CUTE!!

TL;DR: Open your heart to our skunk friends.

[wilderness360]

Alterhuman Intro

Hello everyone!

I decided to make an alterhuman specific intro.

I know it may seem like a lot but I do actually identify this way. I have put a lot of thought into each aspect of my identity.

Kintypes: Polymorph and harpy (specifically harpycladokin. I don’t identify as a specific specifics of harpy)

Polymorph related Homeshifts: Ball python, fisher cat, mermaid, cervitaur, black roughneck monitor lizard, and fox/bat hybrid creature.

Kithtypes: Canids, mustelids, mephitids, hissing cockroaches, boa constrictors, bats, black roughneck monitor lizards, rosy barbs, sika deer, axolotls, tapirs, rams, goats, some species of ants, werewolves, wolfbloods, The jersey devil, and merpeople.

Copinglinks: Undead Rottweiler, blue tick coonhound, mink, mermaid

Paratypes: Cats possibly also mice/rats

Questioning: Maaanny creatures. A few notable ones are an animatronic from the Fnaf universe and some sort of arthropod.

Hope to see you around

[ainawgsd]

Stink Badgers

Stink badgers are named for their resemblance to badgers and for the foul-smelling secretions that they expel from anal glands in self-defense (which is stronger in the Sunda species). Stink badgers were traditionally thought to be related to true badgers of the weasel family of carnivores, the Mustelidae, but recent DNA analysis so strongly suggests they share a more recent common ancestor with skunks that experts have now placed them in the skunk family of carnivores, the Mephitidae.

There are only two extant species - the Palawan stink badger (M. marchei), and the Sunda stink badger or Teledu (M. javanensis). They live only on western islands of the Malay Archipelago: Sumatra, Java, Borneo and (in the case of the Palawan stink badger) on the Philippine island of Palawan; as well as many other, smaller islands in the region.

The Palawan stink badger is a named for the largest island to which it is native, Palawan. It is the size of a large skunk or small badger, and uses its badger-like body to dig by night for invertebrates in open areas near patches of brush. While it lacks the whitish dorsal patches typical of its closest relatives, predators and hunters generally avoid the powerful noxious chemicals it can spray from the specialized anal glands characteristic of mephitids. The tail is very short in comparison to the body and lacking the bushy fur of many skunks. The ears are almost invisible, with only vestigial pinnae, and the eyes are also relatively small. The fur is dark brown to black over most of the body, fading to a more brownish colour on the underparts. There are also scattered white hairs across the back and over the forehead, but not the white stripe and head-patch found on the closely related Sunda stink badger. 

Sunda stink badgers have a similar body shape to badgers, but are significantly smaller, being 15 to 20 inches in total length, and weighing from 3 to 8 pounds. Their fur is coarse, and black or very dark brown over most of the body, with a white stripe running from the top of the head to the tail. The tail is short, measuring about 1 1/2 inches, and is covered in white fur. The width of the stripe varies considerably between individuals, but is usually narrow, and may be discontinuous. Sunda stink-badgers can be found across a wide variety of habitats, including forest edges or areas of secondary forest. Sunda stink badgers are omnivorous and nocturnal. The animal portion of their diet consists of invertebrates, eggs, and carrion. At night, they root through soft soil using their snout and claws, searching for worms and ground-dwelling insects. During the day, they sleep in short burrows, which they may either dig themselves or take over from other animals.

[antiqueanimals]

Wildlife in North Carolina. July 1972. Illustration by Ken Pendleton.

Internet Archive

[antiqueanimals]

Florida Wildlife; vol. 26, no. 3. August 1972. Cover illustration by Wallace Hughes.

Internet Archive

[antiqueanimals]

Along Four-Footed Trails; Wild Animals of the Plains as I Knew Them. Written by Ruth A. Cook, with illustrations by Mabel Williamson. 1903.

Internet Archive

[antiqueanimals]

Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis)

A Natural History of British and Foreign Quadrupeds. Written by James H. Fennell. 1843.

Internet Archive