Influence of Habitat on Presence of Striped Skunks in Midwestern North America

Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are urban-adapted, generalist mesocarnivores widely distributed throughout North America. Although striped skunks have been studied extensively at small scales, knowledge of habitat influences on striped skunks at large scales is lacking. We developed a species dis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDiversity (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 2; p. 83
Main Authors Amspacher, Katelyn, Jiménez, F. Agustín, Nielsen, Clayton
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.02.2021
Subjects
Agriculture
Animal behavior
Anthropogenic factors
Bias
Cameras
Crops
Forest management
Geographical distribution
Habitats
human impact
Human influences
Land cover
Land use
Mephitis
Mephitis mephitis
mesocarnivore
species distribution model
Wetlands
Wildlife sanctuaries
United States > US
North America
Illinois
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Summary:Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are urban-adapted, generalist mesocarnivores widely distributed throughout North America. Although striped skunks have been studied extensively at small scales, knowledge of habitat influences on striped skunks at large scales is lacking. We developed a species distribution model (SDM) to examine potential striped skunk presence in a 16,058 km2 portion of southern Illinois, USA. We built models using SDM Toolbox and MaxEnt, and incorporated known presence locations, 1 km2 land cover data, and an index of human modification of the landscape. Land cover and human modification explained 98% and 2% of variation in our model, respectively. The highest presence of striped skunks existed in areas with forest cover and developed open space with moderate human modification. The striped skunk presence was lowest in areas with cultivated crops and woody wetlands with either low or high human modification. Forest cover provides natural food and shelter resources for striped skunks, but resources are likely augmented by human activity in developed open space. Cultivated crops only provide seasonal resources, and inundation limits denning in wooded wetlands. Our model indicated striped skunks are a synanthropic species that regularly inhabits both natural and anthropogenic habitats over a large scale.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d13020083