Humboldt's hog-nosed skunks
| Humboldt's hog-nosed skunk | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Mephitidae |
| Genus: | Conepatus |
| Species: | C. humboldtii |
| Binomial name | |
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Conepatus humboldtii Gray, 1837 |
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| Humboldt's hog-nosed skunk range | |
Humboldt's hog-nosed skunk, also known as the Patagonian hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus humboldtii) is a type of hog-nosed skunk indigenous to the open grassy areas in the Patagonian regions of Argentina and Chile. It belongs to the order Carnivora and the family Mephitidae.
This skunk is small and stocky, with a with a bare nose elongated for the purpose of finding ground beetles, grasshoppers and crickets . Its fur is brownish-red with two symmetrical stripes on either side, extending to the tail. It ranges from 30–34 cm in body length, with a 17- to 21-cm tail. They usually weigh 1.5 to 3.0 kg. The skunk has long claws and well developed forelimbs in order to dig to locate prey .
Its teeth are specialized for the consumption of invertebrates and fruit, their lower molars are adapted for crushing such resistant foods. Similar adaptation of the molars is seen in the South American gray fox . Like all South American hog-nosed skunks, it is smaller with a more primitive skull and tooth structure than North American skunks .
There is high pressure from intraguild predation on Patagonian hog nosed skunks. It is often preyed upon and targeted competitively by larger carnivorans such as the culpeo, chilla fox, Geoffrey's cat, pampas cat, Andean cat, and puma. It however is unlikely to target other carnivorans .
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