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b"This week we're commemorating my HOUSE getting SKUNKED by a SKUNK and it was STINKY\\n\\nThe skunk, stinky but adorkable, especially when it's eating yellow jackets:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe stink badger looks like a shaved skunk with a bobbed tail:\\n\\n\\n\\nThe zorilla wants to be your stinky friend:\\n\\n\\n\\nA woodhoopoe, most magnificent:\\n\\n\\n\\nA Eurasian hoopoe, looking snazzy:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nThis week we\\u2019re going to learn about some animals that are infamous for their stinkiness. This wasn\\u2019t the topic I had planned on for this week, but last week my house got skunked. That is, a skunk sprayed an animal very close to my house, which means I woke up at 4:45am gagging from the smell of point-blank skunk odor. And this was with the windows closed and the air conditioning going. It was so bad I thought I would throw up, so I yanked on my clothes, grabbed my purse, and fled the house at 5:30am. I went to work early\\u2014don\\u2019t worry, I got coffee on the way\\u2014and spent the whole day smelling skunk faintly where the smell clung to my hair and, oddly, my phone case. Also I spent the whole day complaining to my coworkers.\\n\\nFortunately, when I got home the smell had dissipated somewhat, so I opened all the windows and doors and by the next morning it was mostly gone. But it got me wondering why skunk spray smells so, so bad and how many other stinky animals are out there.\\n\\nThe skunk is native to North and South America, although there are two species of related animals that live in some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, called stink badgers. No seriously, that\\u2019s really what they\\u2019re called. Skunks and stink badgers are related to actual badgers and to weasels, but not closely.\\n\\nThe stink badger is black or dark brown with a white stripe that runs from its head down the back of its neck and along its spine, and finishes at its little short tuft of a tail. The skunk is black or dark brown with one or two white stripes or white spots, depending on the species, which continues down its long fluffy tail. In all cases, though, these stinky animals are vividly patterned with dark fur and bright white markings as a warning to other animals. Do not get too close or there\\u2019s a world of stink coming your way. Also, I can verify from my own experience that the white markings of a skunk make it much easier to see in the darkness and therefore avoid. Since the skunk is crepuscular, meaning it\\u2019s most active around dusk and dawn, that\\u2019s important. The stink badger is more nocturnal than the skunk.\\n\\nBoth the skunk and the stink badger have relatively short legs with sharp claws. Both are relatively small, about the size of a cat. Both are also good diggers and spend the daytime asleep in their burrows. In winter the skunk doesn\\u2019t hibernate but it does stay in its burrow more, spending most of its time asleep. This is the best way to deal with winter cold, if you ask me.\\n\\nFemale skunks share a den in the winter but males are usually solitary. This means the females retain a higher amount of body fat when the weather warms up, since they didn\\u2019t need to burn that fat to keep themselves warm. Researchers think this helps the females stay in better condition for a spring pregnancy. Meanwhile, males are skinnier at the beginning of the winter but by staying alone they\\u2019re less likely to contract disease or parasites.\\n\\nMating season for skunks is in spring and babies are born in early summer. They mostly stay in the burrow for about two months, then start accompanying their mother when she goes out foraging. The mother is really protective of her babies and will spray any animal that approaches.\\n\\nAlthough the skunk can hear and smell well, it has poor vision. That\\u2019s why so many are killed by cars. The skunk\\u2019s biggest predator is the great horned owl, because owls don\\u2019t have much of a sense of smell and don\\u2019t care about being sprayed.\\n\\nThe skunk and the stink badger are both omnivorou..."