When I was about 10 years old (1966), Western Spotted Skunks may have been
raiding my homing pigeon coop close to the shore of Eld Inlet northwest of
Olympia. Something was getting in and killing pigeons. I set a Havahart live
trap and caught spotted skunks on three separate nights. I remember taking
the skunks what I thought was an adequate distance out in the woods and
letting it go, only to have a spotted skunk in the trap the next night, the
same one or a different individual. I spray painted the second animal with a
spot of gold spray paint and took it away and released it. I caught another
one in the next week or so and it showed no sign of paint.

I've often thought that Western Spotted Skunks have diminished in the Puget
Sound lowlands. I believe Andrew Carey published a paper in Northwestern
Naturalist (or somewhere) that speculates about a decline based on trapping
in forested environments within the documented historic range in the Puget
lowlands.

I'm convinced my parents had a Western Spotted Skunk in their cabin at
Twanoh Falls, along the south shore of Hood Canal, about eight years ago. I
didn't see it but they provided a good description of the animal that had
come in via a dryer vent hole. That location is more Olympic Peninisula
where they may be more common than anywhere in the Puget lowlands on the
east side of Puget Sound.

I, too, would be interested in recent occurrences in the lowlands east of
Puget Sound.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia, Washington