Is a skunk that is active during the daytime rabid?

Skunks are mostly known for their capacity of spraying in the form of self-defense mechanism, but also these creatures are known for being carriers of rabid. The most common question which is asked by people is that is a skunk that is active during the daytime rabid? The general concept which prevails among majority is that a skunk active during day time is definitely rabid because of the fact that it’s not normal for skunks to exhibit level of activity during day time as they are nocturnal. However, this is a wrong concept, which you can never consider to be as appropriate because technically speaking skunks are crepuscular and this means that normally these creatures can come out during dusk and dawn.



The fact of the matter in this regard is that many times a skunk which you see active during day time is a mother that is hungry because during the birth season the feeding routine or habits of the mothers normally get reversed. There is more threat to the den during night time than day so mother normally prefers to stay in the den during night for protecting its kids. Only when kids reach 5 to 6 weeks of age the mother takes them out for teaching that how bugs can be hunted and used as a source of food. The mothers start to return towards natural pattern of sleeping and eating when kids reach 8 weeks of age.

Therefore, it is a totally false concept that an active skunk during day time is always rabid and this misconception has led to the killing of a good number of skunks. A method that is commonly used for repelling skunks is to leave the porch lights on during night and concept behind this is that being nocturnal skunks will prefer to stay away from light. Again this is wrong because skunks normally don’t have any kind of disliking towards lights. Lights normally attract bugs and naturally this will compel skunks to visit the illuminated area in search of food.

Learn more: Do skunks warn before spraying?

In all cases we suggest that you should not go ahead with the idea of killing a skunk only because of the fact that it was active during day. You should try to stay away from the animal and allow it to do whatever its doing unless no harm is being done. Right strategy in this regard will be to call local animal control.

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