A skunk is one of those animals you never want to come across. The anal spray they produce and use against potential predators can be quite horrific and this is why so many people want to do all that they can to avoid them. They are terrible creatures whose spray can leave you stinking for days, gasping for breath instantly, and makes your eyes burn. You clearly do not want to get hit by the horrible spray that they produce.
While you surely don’t want to get hit by this, you may wonder if skunks run out of spray. If you think about the fluids that humans make, you are readily able to create just about anything that your body produces, but is this also true of the skunk?
That is an interesting question. That fact is that the skunk can run out of spray and when it does it is in a bit of trouble.
The average skunk can hold up to about 80 ml of the spray. When it shoots the spray at a potential target it usually shoots out between 12 and 15 ml per spray. This means that it can spray from four to six times before it runs out of its spray.
That is a lot to use, but it is part of the reason why they are so careful when they spray. Many people think that the skunk will spray almost at will, but it is aware that it only has a limited number of attempts before it runs out of the spray. It is not willing to spray unless it feels clearly threatened. It must protect its supply.
This is an issue to the animal because it will take up to 10 days to be able to produce a new supply from its glands. If it were to spray a bunch of animals that came across its path in just a couple of days period of time, this can mean that for six or seven days it may have no way to protect itself at all. This would obviously be quite bad.
While a skunk has very sharp claws, it is that spray that is its primary defense. If it does not have that it can be in a lot of trouble, and this is why it tries to be so cautious about when it uses the spray. It is not willing to leave itself defenseless, and so it will be careful as to when to use it.
For those who are seeking to capture a skunk, this is the way that you must try to disarm it. You have to get it to use its spray in a short period of time without getting hit. Then it is virtually harmless.
Read more:
Skunk Control,
how to kill skunks.
