The Naturalist Report: The Skunks of Ohio!

Marion County Naturalist, James Anderson joined the podcat to talk about skunks in Ohio and around the Marion area. James also talks about the Solar Eclipse and other programs he's doing in March.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
James Anderson in today from the MarionCounty Park District. We're going to ask
the naturalist. James is a naturalistat the Marion County Park District and I
haven't seen him in a little while. But you were here for Buckeye Chuck.
Nice event, wasn't it? Oh? It was. It was wonderful.
Yeah, so good stuff. Gladthat that worked out and everybody had
a good time. And seems sofar buck eye Chuck was correct. Yeah.

(00:22):
Yeah, other than a few littlesnow. Yeah, maybe we might
get some tonight too. Not tonight, I mean tomorrow night. I guess
maybe get a dusting of snow.But going from seventy five, it feels
like temperature of seventy five to eighteenup in Toledo tomorrow and that means storms.
Yeah, when you have that goingon, that means storms. It

(00:44):
got Ohio weather right now. Thegood news is we'll have the sunroof open
again, I guess over the weekend. But yeah, at this point,
Buckeye Chuck was correct with his predictionof an early spring forests. And of
course is it meteorological spring? Isthat what they call? That's Friday,
March first, right, the meteorologistssay their spring is the is on the
first, So I think that's Friday, I think so. And then the

(01:07):
March twenty first, I think iswhen the spring equinox is. That's the
equinox. Yeah. Yeah, Sohere's the way I work it. So
I do spring on March first,but I don't consider winter until the actual
winter sols. Yeah, there yougo. I like, it's that's the
crazy world that I live in.Hey, it works for me, so

(01:27):
I guess it works out. Butwe've got a lot to talk about today.
You brought a skunk with you.What do you got my friends?
Yeah? Yeah, I wanted totalk about skunks for a little bit because,
as I was telling you before,we went on area either unfortunately finding
them on the road getting hit,or you're probably smelling them right now right
on. It's their their breeding season, so they're very active right now,

(01:48):
so they are going to do alot of traveling. So yes, that's
why you're seeing a great number ofroadkills of skunks because they're just trying to
get from point A to point B. And the reason why you're smelling a
lot of skunks in this time isand this is kind of funny. But
the females, if she's not readyto breed, or if she has already
have bread with another male, ifanother male tries to attempt to go after

(02:12):
her, she'll spray him and say, you don't back off. Okay,
So it's just yeah, it's justher way. I say, nope,
I'm not interested. So yeah,they will even spray their own kinds,
so it's not just humans and dogsand other threats. But yes, they
will even spray other skunks. Sothey certainly do a lot of that.
Yes, yes, they sure do. And the thing is, and I
know I've mentioned this before on theair, but the spray is the last

(02:35):
defense for skunks because once they spray, it takes about roughly two weeks to
replenish that spray. Oh wow,That's why I like if a dog or
a coyote or something came up uponthe skunk, you know, they're gonna
lift up that tail and they're gonnasay, you know, hey, stay
away from me. That's another warningsign. And of course if that threat,
you know, really persists after them, they're like, okay, you
you know, you push my buttons. Here it is, and you know,

(02:59):
they can spray pretty far about tenfeet and it's very very exitic,
and when it burns or it getsaround the face, it burns, so
it's kind of like mace. Soit's a really great self defense that these
guys have. So the stripe skunkis the only species we have here in
Ohio, but across the United Stateswe do have other skunk species. We
have the hood of skunk, thespotted skunk, and the hog noo skunk.

(03:23):
I think I read there's about twelvedifferent skunk species worldwide, so I
think again we have about four tofive of them here in the United States.
And of course whether in the namestriped skunk, you know, they
get the nice either one or twolines going down their bodies. So I've
seen some almost completely black, I'veseen some almost completely white. Genetics definitely
controls all of that. And Iknow a lot of us are probably saying,

(03:46):
you know, hey, I hopeI never get sprayed by a skunk,
But you know what, they arevery very important for our ecosystems.
They eat a lot of insects.And it's actually kind of funny. Our
old perfumes and colognes was actually madefrom sk spray. Real it was actually
it was the base and then theyput the other nice smelling ingredients to,
you know, to make it smellbetter. But what it was is without

(04:09):
the skunk spray, the nice smellwhen is to go onto your clos or
your skin. Okay, So Ialways tell the kids, I said,
well your date, syss, yousmell nice. We'll say, we'll think
the skunk. Yeah, there wasa lot of animal byproducts back in the
day with perfume and cologne. Therewas whale blubber, beaver oils, there's
skunk sprays, a lot of differentthings. Now they don't do that much
today, maybe in other parts ofthe world, but here in the United

(04:30):
States now, yeah, it's allmanufactured, yes, at this point.
So how has the skunk here inOhio evolved? I mean, obviously with
build up and things like that,everything has moved to different areas. But
what's kind of the evolution of theskunk around Ohio? Yeah, So,
I mean their preferable habitat is Imean they want to be more in a

(04:50):
forest area. Now you may findthem around open fields as well, but
with skunks, raccoons or possums,coyote deer like you mentioned, because we
have you know, come into theseareas and start developing, you know,
into towns and settlements and all.You know, these animals have learned to
adapt and they basically are saying,you know what, I guess we're going

(05:12):
to call this place home. Andyes, you can even find in downtown
Columbus, downtown Marion. So then, of course, you know these guys,
A lot of us don't like themaround, especially the skunks, because
we're always afraid of their spray.So unfortunately, I think skunks get more
of a target than raccoons and opossumsbecause again of that potential threat of that
nasty smell, and that smell canlast for quite a few weeks, oh

(05:35):
absolutely yeah. And also too ifthis gets into like your dog's fur.
Sometimes I've even heard some owners evenup to a year after their dog got
spray if it gets a little bitwet, if they notice that skunk fragrance
to it. So so yeah,that smell does last quite quite a bit
of time. Now, you know, the old fashioned way they said to

(05:58):
get rid of skunk spray tomato juice, right right, Well, that's the
worst thing you want to do,because if you're never in biology or environmental
science, if you remember about thepH scale, so you know it goes
from seer to fourteen. Well,skunk spray is very exitic. Well guess
what tomato juice is is an acidas well, So you have to kill
or neutralize the acid with your alkalinites. So there is a home remedy.

(06:20):
It's a peroxide dish soap and peroxideand you mix it together and eventually it
does kill the skunk. Acid doesn'tget rid of it one hundred percent,
but again it does help also too, if your dog gets prayed, do
not wet them down first because ifyou do, it actually traps in the

(06:40):
oils. Because we learn, youknow, oil and water don't mix very
well, so you do want itmore of a pat dry at first.
Once you really establish that into thatdog's firm, then yes, then apply
the water afterwards. What I alwaysrecommend to if you want to get the
rid of that the skunk smell aroundyour house, what I tell people,
First off, open up all yourwindows because you want to create you know,

(07:01):
circulation. But the other thing istoo of you get containers full of
apple cider finnegar. They said thatit actually does help absorb some of the
smell. Now, Unfortunately, ifyou're not a fan of finegar like me,
it's not their greatest but but itagain it does help counter it.
So again not one percent, butit does help some. Wow, that's

(07:23):
interesting because so acid on acid becauseyou're saying that it's acid base, but
so is vinegars and stuff, right, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, we had thathappened last year. We had our doll
gut sprayed and yeah, and Idid that for about two or three days.
Our house smell like vinegar. It'snot all bad. Yeah, it's

(07:44):
not all bad. I run whitevinegar in my coffee pot every couple of
months, you know, paint itout, that kind of thing. And
I actually am a fan of thesmell of vaniger. Plus I use a
vinegar in epsom salt base as aas a weed killer. Oh really,
oh yeah, that would absolutely Obviouslyit doesn't hurt anything, you know,
the animals or the birds or whathave you. And the thing about it

(08:05):
is, you know, it's notlike using the manufacture stuff in that you'll
spray it in the springtime and thenyou don't see those weeds at all.
You'll see them. It might takea month or two, but it also
needs the sun because obviously the epsomsalt drives it out. The sun does
its thing. But yeah, vinegarand ebbso salt and dish soap, you
don dog soap. You can findthe recipe online. It works, It

(08:28):
works good. I will have totry. But it's funny. I always
tell my wife, I'm gonna goout and do salad dressing on the on
the on the weeds because it smellslike salad dressing outside for a day or
two. But yeah, no,I get that. So what else do
you have about the skunk man?Yeah, so it's funny too. I

(08:48):
talked about how a lot of theirdiet is mostly insects and all. Sure,
but they will let you know ifyou've got a grub problem in your
yard. So because this, mostof us know. There are some beetle
species that like to lay their eggsunderneath our grass or turf grass. And
of course the larvae or the littlewarmlike little baby stage, you know they're

(09:11):
underneath that ground they're tunneling through.Well, Skunks really really enjoy that.
So if you see a big,big pile of dirt in your property,
it's most likely a skunk that's tellingyou hey, you got a grub infestation.
Now, of course we know thatmoles will do that too, but
moles, you know, make alot of smaller piles, but skunks will
make larger ones. I know.I've heard stories of football fields being absolutely

(09:35):
torn up and then they found outlater on again they had a grub problem,
and then they found out again theskunk kind of helped them realize that.
So yeah, it's just again Iknow they cause damage, but again,
in a way, they're kind oftelling you, hey, you have
this kind of infestation. So right, And skunks, like raccoons and possums,
they do most of their work atnight. Yeah, yep, they're

(09:58):
they're nocturnal. So now you mayfind one during the day, you know,
if it is traveling food or findingfood. But like always tell people,
I mean, yes, if yousee a nocturnal animal during the daytiming,
you know, yeah, I mean, have a little red flag.
But I always say, look atbehavior too. If they're stumbling and going
in circles and just really really actingabnormal. I said, thing, yes,

(10:18):
that could be either rabies or someother disease, right, right,
they've got some sort of a healthproblem. Interesting good stuff, man,
well, let's talk about some ofthe other things that you have going on.
I know that you're getting ready forthe solar eclipse that is April the
eighth, and here and Marion,we are in the path of totality.
If you go a little bit farthernorth, you'll be even more in the

(10:41):
path of totality right around the UpperSandusky area. But the tall Grass Trail
will be definitely there. You thinkthere'll be a lot of people at tall
Grass to see it that day?I think so, yes, what thousands
of people or what do you think? I mean, they talk about the
influx of tens of thousands of peoplein some of these communities like Mary.
Yes, if I've been to acouple of conferences that they were talking about

(11:05):
that, I mean, don't getme wrong, And yes, it would
be nice to see quite a fewpeople, but of course we know some
of the challenges that come with that, right with litter and everything. So
but yes, we will be doinga program, but it just won't be
at tall Grass Trail. We're actuallypartnering with Mary os Us, so we're
quite excited and I'm actually kind ofdoing another partnership with the ohidroficion of Wildlife.

(11:26):
They want to know what happens towildlife during the eclipse. Okay,
thirty minutes prior during and thirty minutesafter because as you mentioned, you know
what that totality, you know,it basically day becomes nights for just that
very short time, and so youknow, some of these nocturnal animals might
say, oh, it's already nighttime. Also to some animals you know

(11:50):
that are acted during the daytime maydecrease their activity, and some they may
not, may do nothing at all. But yeah, I've been to a
workshop and they were talking about that, and so yeah, I'm really excited
to work with the High Division ofWildlife. We'll be posting more about it.
I'm trying to work with osu'retrying to work out the the fine
details. But we're going to dohopefully a couple of hikes and again I'll

(12:13):
do my presentation about how the eclipseaffects widlife and then then we'll go out
and we'll do some wildlife observation.So keep up today, not only on
our social media, but probably Maryknows who's social media as well. Right,
And the totality is about three anda half minutes, but obviously it
begins an hour before and goes tillan hour after. And from what I'm
reading and being told that, youknow, if it is a seventy degree

(12:37):
day, it'll get very cold andthen warm back up again. I mean,
it's just an obviously total darkness forthose three and a half minutes.
It's just I'm fascinated by the wholething, as I'm sure millions of people
are, which is why they're talkingabout the possibility of tens of thousands of
people coming to communities like Marion tobe able to be in the path of

(12:58):
totality and experience it. So it'sgoing to be something. So I mean,
I'm excited, and I mean that'sa once in a lifetime for most
of us. So I actually sawthe next one that will happen in Ohio
will be in two thousand and ninetynine. So I did some fun map.
I told my son Jeremiah, soI'll be one hundred and nine.
I say, go be eighty four. So they say you may be able
to see the next one. Yeah, absolutely, they might be seeking him

(13:22):
out for information from one to another. That's right. Be kind of cool,
neat stuff. And of course hecan get that information checking out the
Marion County Park District to online forall of those things. So talk about
your crane count you have coming up. Yeah, So we have been part
with the San Hill crane count withthe how Division and Wildlife. They've been
doing it for four years. We'vebeen part of it for three. If

(13:45):
you're not familiar, Saint hel cranesare like Heron's, a great blue herons,
a little bit smaller. They're actuallya threatened species in our state.
So it means our population isn't doingthe greatest, not in danger, not
yet, but hopefully you know theydon't. They're the numbers don't dwundle down.
And so we go out on acertain day in April and we we

(14:07):
have these certain survey blocks and thenwe have to observe by sight or sound
of sand Hill cranes and then wereport that back to the High Division of
Wildlife and then they make a mapand saying, okay, this is where
the crane population is in the entirestate of Ohio. And what's really fortunate
about Marion County with big on wildlifearea and kind of killed your planes,

(14:28):
which I know mostly in why not, but those two spots are probably one
of the most greatest places you canfind sale to hill cranes in the state
of Ohio. Really. I wasjust actually there yesterday and saw probably a
dozen or so, and they makea very very unique call. Maybe next
month all I'll pull up my phoneand okay, we'll do like we did

(14:50):
before with the with the howls andall. But it sounds prehistoric and they're
really fascinating birds. And what's reallycool too about Marion County with having wetland
slash grassland abatat, they will breedhere and they will also have their chicks
here, and so we have hadsome of our local photographers who have captured
pictures of the baby San hill cranes, so that's really special. I guess

(15:13):
also too, I'm Lake Gary wouldalso be another good spot to find them.
But yeah, it's just really coolthat we have San hill cranes basically
in our backyard. So we're reallygetting really fortunate and getting really excited to
work with the Division and Wildlife.So you don't have to be an expert
burner, So I'll give you somebasic training and certain protocols that the how
Division wants you to do. Butif you're interested, definitely contact us on

(15:35):
our social media or our office phonenumber and I can get you squared away.
That's neat, good stuff, goodstuff. You've got a duck class
you're going to do at Elgin.Yes, yes, so Chad Grody,
which is our wildlife officer here inMarion County, he reached out to me
and said, hey, James,you want to do a duck class together?
And said sure, I don't care. So so yeah, so Chad,

(15:56):
myself and LEVI is pasma or plasmaout there at Elgen. I think
it's the biology teacher out there.So yeah, we're going to be at
the at the Speak Building which isthere kind of by the football field.
So now this class you do haveto register through the Ohio Division of Wildlife

(16:19):
so and it is free. Soyes, So it's on the seventeenth and
it's from five point thirty to seveno'clock PM. And so the first portion
will be at the Speak Building andthen after that, which which is nicest
right there on LaRue Prospect Road.You just go down there right across for
big Is headquarters is and we willhave some spotting scopes and we'll be observing

(16:42):
some waterfowl species hopefully it'll be anice day and ubserve some ducks. That's
fun. I love that. Ilove that. So you're looking for an
intern John has moved on. Yes, yeah, so yes, if you
know anybody, We're mainly looking foreither high school students or college students who
either are pursuing a degree in naturalresources or has a really strong interest in

(17:04):
natural resources. But yes, thisis our summer intern for the summer from
May to about August time, soit's about a twelve week period. And
yes, it is a paid internship. A lot of people don't realize that
there are some internships you don't getpaid at all. So but yes,
this is a really fun opportunity youknow, get out to the community.

(17:26):
I mean you learn about nature andalso teach about nature. So yes,
if you're highly interested, please pleasereach out. We got a couple of
candidates, but we're still you know, open to looking for more people.
So yeah, please reach out tous on Facebook, Instagram, our office
phone number, our website, sothat way you can know or to apply
for the position. Right and Iknow, right now really starting to amp

(17:48):
up the programs, getting ready forthe warmer weather and more time to be
outdoors. And do you have anythingelse on your calendar you want to highlight
for you what's coming up? Yeah? Yeah, So for the month of
March, we have some fun,exciting programs. So on the fourth at
five o'clock PM, we're doing aWoodpecker wonders hike, starting there at the
trail head at the tall Grass Trail, So we're gonna talk about woodpeckers of

(18:10):
Ohio and go along on the trailand try to find them. On the
ninth, we're doing our Shamrock Hike, which is part of our Winter Hike
series. It is the last onefor twenty twenty four. It is from
one to four pm. But ifyou want a optional guided nature tour with
myself that starts at one thirty.But remember this as a come as you
please, so if you want tocome at two thirty you can. We'll
have light refreshments there inside the building. Jeanine Williams. She'll have some nice

(18:36):
cookies and hot chocolate and other delicioustreats. The thirteenth, we're doing a
woodcock program. So I know we'vetalked about it before, but it's basically
a cool little shore bird and itmigrates soue here. That starts at six
thirty pm, so I know itsounds later, but these guys are more
nocturnal, so we'll talk about themfirst, and we go along the trail

(18:56):
so as the sun is setting,we'll have a greater chance of finding them.
So that will start at the trailhead. Then, as we were
talking about earlier, on the seventeenth, we're doing the Exploring Waterfowl Identification course
there at Elgin, So please againgo through the Ohio Division and Wildlife to
register because it is a very smalla building and you know we only have
so much room. On the twentieth, at seven thirtieth or seven thirty pm,

(19:18):
excuse me, we're doing a sunsethike. But we're going to start
at the trail but at the herRoad parking lot, and we'll take a
stroll round the lake and maybe aroundthe two of three sections, just depend
on how, you know, whatdepends on what we see or what we
hear what, and yeah, it'llbe a good, good little stroll.
And then on the twenty ninth atsix o'clock pm, we're doing a Listening

(19:41):
for Frogs and Toads program again,this is also at the at the tall
Grass Trail, but at the herRoad parking lot, so we have a
lot of little pond areas next tothe lake, so there's a lot more
frog activity there. So but pleasekeep in mind if it's really cold,
anything about thirty two or below,we'll probably we'll have to cancel because you
know, they're not going to beout but with as warm as it's been,

(20:03):
like we've talked about, they probablymight be out there. That's excellent.
Yeah, good stuff. You've gota lot of great things going on.
How do people reach out to youand get involved in what's going on
with the Marion County Park District.Yes, yes, so of course our
social media Marion Taalgrass Trail, MarionCounty, Ohio Park District. Also to
our Instagram and our Twitter I knowwhich is now x account, and also

(20:26):
to our office phone number which isseven four zero two two three four one
six one, or if you're onGoogle, type of Marion County, Ohio
Park District replying at Ohio. Aswe mentioned before, there's a lot of
other Marions out in the US,so that way you can have our online
calendar there too. And also aboutthe interim position we talked about and just

(20:48):
some more information about all of ourparks that we are in charge of.
All right, great stuff. JamesAnderson, Marion County Naturalists with the Marion
County Park District. If you're justfinding this podcast, hit follow, and
every time we post a new one, you'll get a notification right on your
phone. It could be on anyof the platforms that are out there,
but James pops by every month andwe have a little chat about what's going

(21:10):
on with nature in Marion and allaround Ohio as well.