Inverse Skunk? What could it be?

CritterHill

Crowing
16 Years
Feb 3, 2008
799
0
282
SE PA
I went out just after dark this evening to sit on the hammock and listen to the ciccadas, when I startled a creature eating a pile of spilled sunflower seeds.

All I saw (by flashlight light) was the back of it running away.

It was:
- about cat sized but shorter
- low to the ground
- long haired
- had a rolling gait, like waves travelling from the front to the back
- black in the middle and white/tan near the edges, like inverse skunk colored!

In fact, the first thing I thought was AAHH, SKUNK! Because it's body shape and movement was very much like that, but then I realized its coloration was exactly wrong.

I chased it to the edge of the woods where it disappeared into the under brush. I never got a look at its head
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Just its back as it ran away from me...

Any ideas what it could be? I've never seen one here before.

I know it wasn't a possum, we get them all the time. And definitely not a raccoon. All our local raccoons are so brave they have names and would not have run away from us. (No stripes and not fat enough either). Definitely not a fox.
 
It probably was a skunk. I seen one like that too, white with a black stripe. They actually are many different patterns, they are not all the typical black with a white stripe. My dad has a family of them that lives near him. They see them near dark out in their back yard. Mom and babies are black with 2 white stripes, with black in between the stripes.
 
Hmmm. It could be a skunk with some sort of genetic ressesive coloration or a vitamin deficiency. Google "skunk rescue" and you will find pictures of skunks in ALL sorts of colors - lavender, champagne, etc.
 
Well, I feel like a real brain surgeon chasing it into the woods now! Glad I didn't get sprayed.

I guess chasing any unknown wild animal through the dark was a less than brilliant move...
 
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I dunno, I've never seen badgers around here. Not sure they live in PA?

If skunks come in patterns other than the standard skunk pattern, I'm going to assume that was it.

Something has been out digging up our moss at night as well, which is very skunk like behavior I am told.
 

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