I grew up in Bosque Farms New Mexico before it became a village. Through my youth most of the old diary farms still milked the herd. The Rio Grande valley around it was very low populated. That allowed a large amount of wild skunks to stick around. That made me become openly aware of why they should be avoided.

Skunks have a tail with a white stripe down the middle of it. It sprays out a stinking scent which lands on any other animal that might be hunting the skunk down. They use that tail for self defense. When you run into a skunk it sits back a uses the tail to make you stink real badly. 

That lesson had to be taught me on one of the small irrigation ditches on my grand father’s diary farm. When I was doing some irrigation late one afternoon a skunk was hidden in some weeds and I stumbled into it. The stink was real hard to wash out of my jeans and work shirt.

This warning holds up to every automobile being driven in some area clogged with skunks. They will not be scared right off the road in front of you. They just sit still in front of on coming traffic and raise their tails. Skunks think they can scare your car away with their stink. I had to learn that in an old pickup truck. Even though they don’t leave any scratches upon the auto body they can stink it up real badly.

That tendency to make other things smell bad has probably kept skunks from extinction. They aren’t trapped and skinned by the folk who do that to other animals as a part time job or hobby. Most of the tourists checking things out in some rural areas around Texas and New Mexico should be aware of their existence. That way they will not have to worry about how nasty their camper is smelling after the skunk gets run over.