Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Conepa­tus semi­s­tria­tus is a neotrop­i­cal species. Its range be­gins in south­ern Mex­ico and con­tin­ues south and east into north­ern Peru and east­ern Brazil. (Nowak, 1999)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Habi­tat se­lec­tion by C. semi­s­tria­tus de­pends on the sea­son. Dur­ing the dry sea­son, the habi­tat se­lec­tion is most di­verse and in­cludes grass­lands, de­cid­u­ous forests, shrub wood­lands, and open areas, with a ma­jor­ity of the time spent in de­cid­u­ous forests and shrub wood­lands. Dur­ing the wet sea­son, habi­tat se­lec­tion be­comes more se­lec­tive and tends to be re­stricted to areas of higher el­e­va­tions, mainly in de­cid­u­ous forests. (Sun­quist, et al., 1989)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• chaparral
• forest
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The back of C. semi­s­tria­tus is black with a white area be­gin­ning at the nape of the neck and ex­tend­ing back­ward, then branch­ing into two stripes sep­a­rated by a nar­row black stripe. The tail is cov­ered with an array of black and white hairs that are shorter than in other species of the genus. The fur is more coarse in Conepa­tus than in other gen­era of skunks. (Medellin, et al., 1992; Nowak, 1999)

The av­er­age wieght of C. semi­s­tria­tus is 1600 g, and the av­er­age length is 570 mm. males are re­ported otbe larger than fe­males.

The claws of this species are elon­gated, as is typ­i­cal of the genus. The species has a broad hog-like nosepad, from which it gets its com­mon name. (Medellin, et al., 1992)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Average mass

  1600 g

  56.39 oz

• Average length

  570 mm

  22.44 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

The mat­ing sys­tem of these an­i­mals has not been doc­u­mented. How­ever, other mem­bers of the sub­fam­ily Mephiti­nae (skunks) are typ­i­cally polyg­y­nous. Males are often larger than fe­males and have larger home ranges. Be­cause of the sex­ual size di­mor­phism seen in C. semi­s­tria­tus, it is likely that this species fol­lows the gen­eral pat­tern of the sub­fam­ily. (Nowak, 1999)

Re­pro­duc­tion in this species is not well doc­u­mented. How­ever, in the genus Conepa­tus, mat­ing is re­ported to occur in early spring, with birth fol­low­ing after ap­prox­i­mately 42 days of ges­ta­tion. Lit­ters of 2 to 5 young are com­mon. Wean­ing ap­par­ently oc­curs by about 3 months of age. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity oc­curs by the age of 10 months. (Nowak, 1999)

De­layed im­plan­ta­tion is com­mon in Mustelids, and in the sub­fam­ily Mephiti­nae, but has not been doc­u­mented in Conepa­tus. (Nowak, 1999)

In tem­per­ate species, re­pro­duc­tion ap­par­ently oc­curs an­nu­ally, but no in­for­ma­tion is avail­able for C. semi­s­tria­tus. (Nowak, 1999)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  The breeding interval has not been reported for this species, but for other members of the genus, it is annual.

• Breeding season

  The breeding season of this species is unknown, but in other species of the genus, mating occurs in the spring.

• Range number of offspring

  2 to 5

• Average gestation period

  42 days

• Average weaning age

  3 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  10 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  10 months

The parental in­vest­ment of this species has not been doc­u­mented. How­ever, in other mem­bers of the Mephiti­nae, fe­males are re­spon­si­ble for the bulk of parental care. They give birth to young in a den or bur­row of some sort. The young are al­tri­cial, and stay in the den until they are able to fol­low their mother on for­ag­ing trips. It is rea­son­able to as­sume that C. conepa­tus is sim­i­lar. as in all mam­mals, the mother pro­vides the off­spring with milk. (Nowak, 1999)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There are no re­ports of longevity in this species. How­ever, an­other species in the genus is re­ported to have lived al­most 9 years in cap­tiv­ity. (Nowak, 1999)

Be­hav­ior

In ra­dio-track­ing stud­ies con­ducted on C. semi­s­tria­tus it was found to be a soli­tary and noc­tur­nal an­i­mal. The sight­ings were only of in­di­vid­ual an­i­mals. Noc­tur­nal move­ments began any­where from 8:00 pm to 12:00 pm and lasted for a pe­riod of 6 hours. (Sun­quist, et al., 1989)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

Home range varies with the sea­son. Dur­ing the dry sea­son the min­i­mum home range was 53 ha, while it was only 18 ha for the wet sea­son. This re­duc­tion of home range size in the wet sea­son prob­a­bly is a re­sponse to greater food avail­abil­ity, and there­fore a re­duced need to travel to get enough to eat. (Medellin, et al., 1992)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

No doc­u­men­ta­tion was found on the com­mu­ni­ca­tion pat­terns of this species. How­ever, as in other mam­mals it is likely that com­mu­ni­ca­tion in­volves tac­tile, vocal, and vi­sual cues. In ad­di­tion, as mustelids, we can as­sume that chem­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the well de­vel­oped anal glands plays some role in this species. (Nowak, 1999)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

The diet of hog-nosed skunks is var­ied, but mainly con­cen­trated on in­sects, lizards, and birds. Other items iden­ti­fied from scat sam­ples in­clude seeds, opos­sums, ar­madil­los, and small ro­dents. A large por­tion of the in­sect re­mains ap­peared to be from ter­mites. (Olmos, 1993)

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• reptiles
• carrion
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

Al­though no in­for­ma­tion was found on anti-preda­tor adap­ta­tions in this species, most skunks avoid pre­da­tion by emit­ting a strong odor from anal glands. This species has no known preda­tors.

Ecosys­tem Roles

It is likely that this species helps to dis­trib­ute seeds of the fruits it con­sumes. In ad­di­tion, these skunks prob­a­bly af­fect pop­u­la­tions of smaller an­i­mals upon which they prey.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

No doc­u­men­ta­tion was found.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

No doc­u­men­ta­tion was found.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

This species is not listed by IUCN or CITES.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Nancy Shef­ferly (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Ryan Walker (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Chris Yahnke (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point.

Ref­er­ences

Blom­strom, D. 2000. "Skunks! (fam­ily Mephi­ti­dae)" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 12/05/01 at http://​www.​geobop.​com/​Mammals/​Carnivora/​Mephitidae/​.

Medellin, R., G. Can­cino, A. Clemente, R. Guer­rero. 1992. Note­wor­thy records of three mam­mals from Mex­ico. The South­west­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 37/4: 427-430.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Olmos, F. 1993. Notes on the food habits of brazil­ian "caatinga" car­ni­vores. Mam­malia, 57/1: 126-130.

Sun­quist, M., F. Sun­quist, D. Daneke. 1989. Eco­log­i­cal sep­a­ra­tion in a Venezue­lan llanos car­ni­vore com­mu­nity. Ad­vances in Neotrop­i­cal Mam­mal­ogy: 197-232.