Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Corralitas Drive: Little Stampy

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 30, 8:15 PM.  The tiniest skunk baby is as noisy as Stampy, stamping about in the crunchy leaves, jumping at me (shooting photos from 20' away) trying to sound like a bigger animal.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

For the past few nights, in different parts of the yard, at different times, I've encountered Little Stampy.  The baby skunk is 5 or 6" long with a tail twice that size.  When threatened, Little Stampy puffs out his hair so it appears 3 times wider than it really is.

I nearly fell over laughing, when it stood did a headstand, hind feet in the air, tail pointed straight up, and farted skunk at me.  (Luckily the babies don't actually spray at this stage.)   I couldn't get a photo of that behavior, though I tried.