Hidden in southeastern Oklahoma are small, secretive skunks with bendy reputations. The plains spotted skunk is about the size of a squirrel and has more tricks than its larger striped relative. To ward off predators, the spotted skunk mimics a handstand.
“They stand on their front hands and put their backside and their tail up in the air and start wobbling around and doing this little dance to look larger than they appear,” Kurt Kuklinski, wildlife diversity and research supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, said.
The cryptic skunks are now the subject of a review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency announced Monday it plans to consider the mammal for Endangered Species Act protections. The review was prompted by Nebraska-based organization Grasslands Unlimited, which petitioned the agency to list the species as threatened or endangered.
Its secretive nature has made it difficult for biologists to confidently estimate its population size in Oklahoma. Wildlife experts say the species declined because of habitat loss beginning at least 100 years ago.
But Kuklinski said new research suggests the skunk could be faring well in southeastern Oklahoma’s wild forests.
“We feel fairly comfortable that they are stable here in Oklahoma,” he said. “But again, that's one state out of eight to 10 states where they exist, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has to weigh information coming from all of us conservation partners.”
The skunk is also found in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. In 2023, Fish and Wildlife declined to list it under the Endangered Species Act.
“Since then, new data suggest the species may have a reduced distribution or occur at very low numbers in the Great Plains, and may warrant reconsideration for federal protection,” the agency said in a news release.
Oklahoma’s wildlife department often shares data with U.S. Fish and Wildlife to help it understand the state’s animals, including the plains spotted skunk. It’s possible the agency could separate the species geographically and grant different federal protections across states, Kuklinski said. It wouldn’t be the first time wildlife officials split up an animal’s range.
Before the agency removed the lesser prairie chicken from the Endangered Species Act in 2025, the bird was considered to have two distinct populations. In its Oklahoma range, the species had a “threatened” status while its southern population was considered “endangered.”
Kuklinski said the same could happen to the plains spotted skunk because the animal prefers different habitats across its range.
“A lot of the experts in the world of spotted skunk believe that that's a possibility here in this next determination by the Fish and Wildlife Service,” he said.
The service will spend the next year reviewing information about the plains spotted skunk to determine whether it fits the criteria for federal protection. Kuklinski said the wildlife department is sharing all available data it has on the animal.
“They're just such a unique, valuable part of that ecosystem that we would hate to see gone, and we're going to do everything we can to try to protect them,” he said.
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