Well, I found this about skunks, didn't use it in the article but here it is:


"Skunks eat home and farm pests such as mice, rats, moles, aphids, grubs, beetles, yellow jackets, grasshoppers, cutworms, cockroaches, scorpions, black widow spiders, snakes, etc. An estimated 70% of a skunk's diet consists of insects considered harmful to humans. They also eat decomposing fruit fallen from trees."
http://www.eapl.com/wildlife_p...

No doubt they eat the good stuff right along with the bad, so maybe it's a balancing act.

Interesting about the pack rats, Mary, I've never seen one.

Polly, in an effort to select what I dream about, I'm not thinking about pythons and alligators.

I didn't look at at your link Polly because I know it would scare me if it had snakes but I have read the Everglades are filled with cast off "pets" that people no longer want such as snakes that mate with snakes and who knows what you end up with

Don't look, Vic. And for sure don't look at the links in the first link.
I'm never going to Florida again.
Alligators are bigger than I am.
Those snakes eat alligators.
See where I'm going with that?
No way am I ever going near Florida again.

Great article Sharon. I agree the wild animals are needed to keep things in balance.
I had a pet skunk when I was a child (in CA), he was very sweet. His mother was run over, so we raised him until he was almost 2 years old. Where we live no we have quite a few skunks, they don't seem to bother anything. It is so much fun watching them raise their young.

We also had a resident red fox that had a litter every year under the shed out back. They are wonderful for keeping the rodent and rabbit population in check.

I know I am suppose to be thankful for Bill (squirrel), but I am having some difficulty in cultivating that feeling for him. Between him and the Blue Jays we never get a harvest from out English Walnut tree and the Hazelnut tree. They strip both trees way before the nuts mature. Then to add insult to injury, they dig up all my raised beds and borders planting the nuts.

Awwwww, sorry about Bill. Maybe you just need to sit him down and explain things to him. And to the blue jays, but of course they'd talk back.

Fun to read about your skunk and your fox family. Thanks for sharing those stories.

Here is a photo of the fox family. Sorry the photos are so bad.

That's so beautiful! I'm glad you let them stay there, not many would. We have them here too, but mostly they live down in the Land Between the Lakes right along with so many other critters where they are protected and food is available to them.

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

We live on the very edge of the city limits with fields and hills around us. Perfect habit for them.

Awww - sweet photo's

I've only seen one fox here. It was beautiful.

ps to say - talking of wild critters - yesterday, I saw about 40, I'm not kidding, wild turkeys in someone's front yard. Should have whipped out the phone and photographed it. It was funny.

The fox are beautiful, Lynn!

Vic, unless they keep their car in an attached garage, those poor folks are probably afraid to leave their house! They may have thought it would be neat to feed a couple of them; problem is, then every turkey in the area shows up for breakfast - every day! They have some kind of communications network about this type of thing.

Just now came across this article.
What a nice informative read, Sharon. Thanks!

I think I have nearly every critter you wrote about here. Well, except the prairie dogs are substituted with whistle pigs and the alligator is substituted with one of the crusty/grumpy neighbors.

Love Hank's perspective on "what good are rats?" Hah! Some years we have the squirrel population take over to the point of doing agricultural damage and they are often referred to as "tree rats". I'll give you a call next time, Hank!

Again, great article!
Shoe

Thanks Shoe!
I like your description of your alligatorish neighbors. I've seen some of them too.

Shoe, what is a whistle pig?

When we lived in Puget Sound we had Mountain Beavers (Aplodontia rufa), common name Boomers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
I think the name Boomer comes from the sound they make. We used to sit on summer evenings, after dark, and listen to the sound of their drumming. Was fascinating.

I cracked up the first time I heard Shoe use the term whistle pig

On this side of the country it would be ground hog. Not sure if you have them over your way or not.

No Ground Hogs here.

Here is a poem about groundhogs, by Robert Frost.

http://sites.google.com/site/d...

Awwwww, I had forgotten that poem, Mary! Guess because he called it a Woodchuck. I've always liked the poem most likely because of these lines:

And if after the hunt goes past
And the double-barreled blast
(Like war and pestilence
And the loss of common sense),

Thanks for reminding me of my 8th grade year when I memorized the poem. Those are the only lines I now remember, but then you know how many years since 8th grade!
I like the dignity it gives the woodchuck.

I'm glad it brought back good memories. One of my favorite critter poems is one by Robert Burns, "To a Mouse". There is also a mouse poem by somebody else "To a Mouse". Someone else wrote "Ode to a Mouse".