
Adopt An Animal symbolically from World Animal Foundation. Your WAF Adopt An Animal Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Animal; Adopt An Animal Adoption Certificate; Fact Sheet About Your Adopted Animal; Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment. Adopt An Animal for Yourself or as a Gift...
Adopt A Skunk From World Animal Foundation
Your World Animal Foundation Adopt A Skunk Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes:
Adopt A Skunk Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt An Animal Kit is from you.
WAF's Adopt An Animal symbolic adoption is a one time fee and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt an animal for yourself or order an Adopt An Animal Kit as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt An Animal Today!
Adopt A Skunk: Help World Animal Foundation Make A Difference For Animals!
Known for their highly effective and tremendously pungent defensive tactics, skunks are some of the most infamous animals around. Members of the family Mephitidae, the name of these distinctive little mammals likely originated from 1600’s Algonquian language. Although they can vary in appearance, almost all species of skunks are found in the Americas (ranging from Canada to central South America), with the exception of Asian stink badgers, which are generally found in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Differing in size and weight depending on species, these odiferous creatures can range from around 15 to 37 inches in length and weigh from around 1lb up to around 18 lb in weight – on average, around the size of a typical housecat. Although they’ve been known to live as long as 10 years in captivity, most skunks in the wild don’t live past the age of one or two, since many fall victim to pest control campaigns or collisions with vehicles because of their poor vision. They’re generally thickly furred and short-limbed with fairly compact bodies, including well-muscled forelegs and sharp claws that are well suited to digging for food or building burrows in the earth. Although skunk coat patterning and coloration is unique to specific species, every skunk is striped from birth, acting as a built in visual warning for predators who might consider the skunk an easy meal. Most skunk species are typically black and white, but coat colors for certain species might include brown, grey, or even cream colored. Some even have a series of spots and stripes combined, or stripes on their legs as well.
The scent of a skunk is its most renowned characteristic, as well as being one of the most effective existing defensive tactics within the animal kingdom. Skunks produce a very obnoxiously scented mixture of chemical oils within two small organs known as anal glands, found on either side of their anus. Strong muscles beside these glands allow a skunk to accurately spray their target as far as 10 feet away. As well as being extremely repulsive; skunk spray is extremely irritating and can even cause temporary blindness in some cases. Because these glands only produce a limited amount of spray, skunks are usually reluctant to use their spray as an initial protection, so they’ll go through a warning routine of foot-stamping, hissing and tail flagging postures before resorting to spraying as a last resort defence. The pungency of skunk spray is so strong that skunks are often able to deter bears and other predators from attacking them, and most people can smell a skunk from as far as ½ a mile away.
Because of their tenacious nature when survival is on the line, it’s not surprising that many skunks have learned to live and thrive in urban environments. Besides being omnivorous, these unique animals are opportunistic foragers and occasional scavengers, changing their diet with the availability of their food. They’ll use their sharp claws to dig holes in search of food, and a meal for a skunk might range from berries, leaves and grasses to insects, bees, worms or grubs. Some skunks may also eat lizards, frogs, snakes, moles, birds and bird eggs, as well as pet food and human refuse if available.
Not usually seen during daylight hours, skunks are most active at dawn and dusk, usually preferring to forage alone assisted by their highly developed senses of smell and hearing. Daylight means rest time for these small creatures, and they tend to shelter in self-made burrows until the sun sets. In colder weather, they’ll stay in their dens for increased periods of time, and groups of female skunks usually like to winter together to stay warm. They aren’t true hibernators, as they will emerge from their den during winter, but they do enter a more dormant phase feeding only occasionally and staying fairly inactive.
Like many other mammals with less active winter cycles, these small creatures mate in early spring and typically give birth to litters of four to seven kits around two months later. Males generally mate with more than one female to ensure successful genetic distribution. Skunk kits are born helpless, blind and deaf, and stay in the den for the first several weeks as they nurse from their dam. Male skunks don’t play any part in the raising or care of their kits. Around the age of three weeks, their eyes open, and around the age of two months, they become weaned and leave the den, though they tend to stay with the female until they’re sexually mature which happens around one year of age. Skunk mothers are particularly protective, too; a female who senses any threat to her kits won’t hesitate to spray potential predators.
Despite their smelly defences, there are still one or two predators who dare to hunt these small striped opponents. Domestic dogs tend to be the most numerous predators, with some even hunting skunks repeatedly despite retaliation. Wolves and other wild canids rarely hunt skunks themselves unless they’re desperate for food. The great horned owl is a skunk’s only consistent predator, swiftly killing them from the air and bringing them back to their nests to feed.
THREATS TO SKUNKS
Although most skunk species are fairly populous, there are a variety of hazards that pose a danger to them. One species in particular, the Eastern Spotted skunk, is currently listed as endangered is some states because of population decline due to farming practices that eliminate ground cover. Some species have traditionally been hunted to harvest their pelts, while pesticide use in many areas has decreased the food supply that’s available for skunks. As a skunk’s foraging nature often leads it to roam across roads in search of food, collision with moving vehicles is a common occurrence for almost all skunk species.
Your World Animal Foundation Adopt An Animal Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes:
Glossy Photo Of Your Adopted Animal; Adopt An Animal Adoption Certificate; Fact Sheet About Your Adopted Animal; Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment.
WAF's Adopt An Animal symbolic adoption is a one time fee and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt an animal for yourself or order an Adopt An Animal Kit as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt An Animal Today!
Adopt An Animal Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient:
Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt An Animal Kit is from you.
Why Adopt An Animal From World Animal Foundation?
Many of the planet’s most iconic and beloved animals are in trouble, and World Animal Foundation needs your help to save them. You can make a difference for wildlife and domestic animals by adopting an animal from World Animal Foundation for yourself, or adopting an animal as gift. Adopting an animal is the perfect gift for a loved one who loves animals, and helps to support World Animal Foundation's critical mission of preserving and protecting the planet and the animals that inhabit it.
The world is teaming with an amazing diversity of animals. Some species are beautiful, others bizarre — but they all are important to the ecosystem and deserve our respect, compassion and protection. Unfortunately, many animal species are declining at a rapid rate as a result of irresponsible human activities. Habitat destruction, pollution, hunting, poor agricultural practices and changes in climate are among the threats faced by wildlife and domestic animals. World Animal Foundation's Adopt An Animal program allows you to symbolically adopt your favorite animal species while supporting our important work of protecting wildlife, companion animals, farm animals and the environment.
Adopt An Animal contributions help provide critical financial support needed to preserve and protect some of the world's most imperiled and abused animals, and to combat the global forces that threaten wildlife, companion animals, farm animals and the planet. World Animal Foundation actively works to create lasting change by fighting the forces that devastate the environment, endanger wildlife and harm companion animals and farm animals. WAF is an all volunteer organization. The organization has no paid officers and uses all donations towards animal and environmental programs: direct rescue, educational programs and animal sanctuaries. Utilizing volunteerism, WAF has kept operating costs to a bare minimum while maximizing our ability to help animals.
Fast Shipping! (Note: Shipping Delays May Occur Due To Pandemic)
Shipping time for World Animal Foundation Adopt An Animal Kits averages 2 to 4 business days - USA. Allow additional time for Adopt An Animal Kits orders outside the USA. Your Adopt An Animal Packet will arrive approximately 2 to 4 business days following shipping date. Shipping & Handling for Adopt An Animal Kits within the USA are by U.S.P.S. Priority Mail.
INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: Average shipping time for Adopt An Animal Kits outside of the USA is 5 to 14 business days, including Canada. International Shipping & Handling for Adopt An Animal Kits is by U.S.P.S. First Class Mail.
World Animal Foundation Adopt An Animal Kits are provided by Tree Frog Trading.
The World Animal Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of the planet and the animals that inhabit it. WAF works with other not-for-profit organizations dedicated to planet preservation and animal issues. WAF works through public education, research, investigations, animal rescue, legislation, special events, and direct action.
WAF is an all volunteer organization. The organization has no paid officers and uses all donations towards animal and environmental programs: direct rescue, educational programs and animal sanctuaries. Utilizing volunteerism, WAF has kept operating costs to a bare minimum while maximizing our ability to help animals.
​WAF has members throughout the world and on every continent.
Through our volunteer network, the World Animal Foundation attempts to make the world a more compassionate place for all animals - wild animals, companion animals, aquatic animals and farm animals. Through grass roots action and activism, WAF bridged the gap between animal and environmental issues.
The Foundation has directly rescued thousands of animals and supports wildlife sanctuaries throughout the US. In addition, WAF engages in Trap-Neuter-Return of feral cats, animal adoptions, low cost spay-neuter programs and numerous animal concerns campaigns.
Membership in the organization is free. Donations are always appreciated and needed to carryout our crucial mission of helping animals and the planet. Help make a difference!