 Body Length: 13-20 Inches
Tail Length: 6-10 Inches Description: Slim bodied with a long, bushy tail. His tail and his underside is darker than his back. Dull Yellow patch of fur on his Throat and on his Breast. One of Utah’s most significant fur-bearing mammals is the Marten. So valuable is this animal’s pelt that some nations, such as Croatia, have based their entire currency around it for almost a thousand years, either using his pelt in place of money, or featuring his image on their coins as they still do to this very day! Although the Marten’s pelt may not buy you much in a store today, the Marten himself remains a marvelous creature to observe if you should come across one in the forest! The Marten is found primarily in places that have a cold winter. His range includes most of Canada and Alaska as well as the Continental United States in Maine, Minnesota, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada (only around the Lake Tahoe area), Northern California, Oregon and Washington. The Marten is an omnivore, his diet consisting of many types of food, such as mammals like squirrels and snowshoe hares, as well as nuts, berries, insects and birds. Keep in mind, however, that not all of the Marten’s food is found in the wild. In some places, the Marten makes such a habit of crawling underneath a vehicle and chewing up its rubber hoses and small parts that some people purchase insurance against vehicular Marten damage! He spends most of his time in the treetops, which is where you are most likely to find him at any daylight hour. Since he is largely nocturnal, your best chances of seeing him on the ground will be at night when he is more actively hunting and foraging. The Marten is a rather solitary creature, associating with each other only during the mating season which is in the summer. Although the Marten breeds is the summertime, the female will not give birth until the following Spring, which is an exceptionally long gestation period compared with other small mammals. Astoundingly, the reason for this lengthy gestation period is that the fetus does not develop continuously. Instead, the Marten fetus waits practically dormant until one month before his birth, when he will grow in one quick spurt! This method of gestation is known in the Animal Kingdom as “Delayed Implantation.” Other mammals who develop according to this method are the Armadillo, the Black Bear and the Fisher. In Utah, the Marten is found primarily in the Uintas and will only rarely be seen as far south as Zion or Bryce Canyon National Park, though of the two he is far more likely to be seen in Bryce Canyon than in Zion due to his love for cold, dense coniferous forests and plenty of snow. Here at Rising K Ranch, your chances of seeing a Marten are extremely low- almost nonexistent. I have seen somewhat similar creatures while horseback riding on my own, such as the Ermine and the Long-Tailed Weasel (and those I have seen only rarely), I have never yet come across a Marten, nor am I likely to here.
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 Striped Skunk
Body Length: 15-19 inches Tail Length: 7-10 inches Description: White Stripe on Face, White Neck Patch, White V on the Back, Bushy Tail With White and Black. The Main Fur Color is Black. Found in both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, as well as right here at Rising K Ranch and throughout the entire state of Utah,the Striped Skunk is both larger and more common than the Spotted Skunk. His range extends throughout the continental US, most of Canada, and northern Mexico. Like all skunks, the Striped Skunk is especially known for his ability to emit a powerfully odiferous, and even somewhat blinding, spray. The warning, if one is given, that the Striped Skunk is contemplating using his spray is that he will arch his back, raise his tail, stamp his front feet and shuffle backward. Because of his spray, the Striped Skunk has few predators. For the most part, it is only the birds of prey, especially owls, that can truly take the skunk by surprise enough to make a decent meal out of him. The Striped Skunk is largely nocturnal, becoming active right about dusk and ambling about through the night searching for food. The Striped Skunk is an omnivore, feasting quite a lot upon insects such as grasshoppers which are a favorite of the Skunk. Depending on the season, the Striped Skunk also feasts upon meat from small mammals, eggs, and fruits and berries. In Autumn, the Striped Skunk focuses on growing as fat as he can so that he can spend his winter inside a den. He does not quite hibernate; but he does become quite dormant throughout the cold winter. If handled correctly, the Striped Skunk can be very easily tamed and throughout the 1800’s, the Striped Skunk was kept by many people as a barn pet in place of a house cat as a means of killing off mice and rats. The early settlers also found the Striped Skunk quite useful for his sweet, white meat (provided he had not sprayed just before he was shot) and for his fur. I certainly do not advise that you set about to eat or to tame a Striped Skunk for yourself, however, because they are second only to racoons when it comes to carrying rabies. If the potential spray is not enough to keep you from approaching too closely to a Striped Skunk, perhaps keeping in mind the potential for contracting rabies or leptospirosis will! Like most of Utah’s animals, the Striped Skunk is a brilliant thing to see in his natural habitat and is nothing to be afraid of provided you use common sense and do not attempt to corner him. Although he is mostly nocturnal, I have come across the Striped Skunk several times riding horses here at Rising K Ranch. I have yet to be bothered by them or even been close to being sprayed by them. Rather than coming after you to try and spray or bite you, the Striped Skunk is much more likely to walk away from you, or if you are quiet enough and not riding directly toward him, he may just ignore you altogether.  Body Length: 8-14 inches
Tail Length: 5-9 inches Description: Black & White Pattern, having a head covered in white spots and a body covered with several stripes or spots. The tail is bushy and black with a white tip. Preferred Habitat: Forests, Prairies, Dense Shrubbery, Rocky areas, Anywhere Close to a Source of Water. The Western Spotted Skunk is one of four species of Spotted Skunks: The Western Spotted Skunk, the Eastern Spotted Skunk, the Pygmy Spotted Skunk, and the Southern Spotted Skunk. It is the Western Spotted Skunk that makes his home in Utah, and he can be found by a diligent wildlife observer in both Zion as well as Bryce Canyon National Park. Like all skunks, the Spotted Skunk is famous, or perhaps infamous, for his horrific odor, which is used at will as a means of warding off potential dangers. The Spotted Skunk in particular is known for his pre-spray warning, which is a rather impressive handstand. Not only does the Spotted Skunk’s handstand serve as a warning; but even more importantly, the handstand allows him to direct his scent glands exactly towards the threat. In addition to the signature handstand, the Spotted Skunk may also hiss, raise his tail and stamp his front feet. It is a good thing that he gives us this warning, and if you should see any of these signs you had better take heed because the spray of the Spotted Skunk is even more pungent than that of the larger Striped Skunk! It is also in the Skunk’s best interest that he gives a warning because he only stores about one Tablespoon of the pungent oil inside his body. In one sense, this tablespoon is plenty since it allows him up to five sprays in a row and he is incredibly accurate up to a distance of 15 feet. However, if he were to use up all five of his sprays at once, it would take him a full week to fully replenish his much-needed (you might even say “essential”) oils. The Spotted Skunk is a small animal in a dangerous world, so he must give at least some concern towards conserving his ammunition! If you or, more likely, your dog find yourself sprayed by a skunk there are a few solutions to your dilemma. While tomato juice will not do anything at all to neutralize skunk odor, here is a list of things that certainly will:
The Spotted Skunk, like the Striped Skunk, is omnivorous. However, the Spotted Skunk makes more liberal use of meat in his diet than his larger cousin does. Among the Spotted Skunk’s favorite delicacies are such small mammals as mice and rats. The diet, as you might expect, varies with the seasons and climate. Typically, the Spotted Skunk will eat more insects in Spring and Summer, more fruits in the Fall, and more meat in the winter when insects and vegetation are scarce. Since they have rather poor eyesight, their primary aids in finding food are their keen senses of smell and their hearing. Found all throughout Utah as well as all the Western States, the Spotted Skunk makes his home in a wide variety of habitats. It seems that the most important thing to the Spotted Skunk is that he is somewhat close to water, preferring a stream or brook to a large lake. The Spotted Skunk makes use of dens that were created by other burrowing animals and may sometimes den up with several of his own species. The den of a Spotted Skunk is usually one that is not totally dark on the inside- the Spotted Skunk likes to have at least a little bit of sunshine in his home! Breeding season for the Spotted Skunk is usually late September through early October. After a 6 ½ month gestation period, the Spotted Skunk gives birth to a litter sometime from April through June. The litter average for the Spotted Skunk is 5 ½ young, with two thirds being males. Each baby Spotted Skunk will already have a color pattern similar to the adult. For the first month of his life, his eyes will be closed and he will spend a great deal of time nursing. Only a few days after he opens his eyes, the baby Spotted Skunk, called a “Kit” will begin to eat solids. At about two months of age, he will be totally weaned and by the time he is four months old, the Spotted Skunk will be fully grown. If kept in captivity, a Spotted Skunk will often live up to ten years; but in the wild, they rarely live to be even half that old. About half are killed by one predator or another before they are even 2 years old. Here at Rising K Ranch, there are certainly several Spotted Skunks around. However, because they are nocturnal we seldom see them on any of our horseback rides. The skunks are especially drawn to Rising K Ranch because we have several free-ranging chickens. The skunks, if it were not for the dogs we have here, would often eat both the chickens and their eggs. As it is, they only rarely make off with an egg or two and nobody minds it too much at all. Spotted Skunks do not hibernate; but they are exceedingly less active whenever the weather becomes either hot as it does for a week or two in July or cold as it often does for several weeks in December-March. With that in mind, the Spotted Skunk will be easier to find in the summer in Bryce Canyon National Park where the elevation is 8,000 feet, in the winter in Zion National Park, where the elevation is 3,000 feet, and almost year ‘round here at Rising K Ranch which is just between Zion and Bryce Canyon and our elevation is 6,000 feet.  Size: 18-23 inch body and a 4 ½ - 6 inch tail
Color: Black Facial Markings with a White Stripe Down the Face and up the top of the Head. The body is covered with gray, shaggy fur and he has large, intimidating claws. One of Utah’s larger mammals, the Badger often lives in areas with little moisture and few trees. Omnivorous, the Badger’s diet consists of earthworms, insects, eggs, small birds, small mammals, lizards, frogs, fruits and roots. With regards to his carnivorous habits, the Badger has a rather unique relationship with the coyote. While, for the most part, they simply ignore each other, there are both times when the badger will eat a coyote as well as times when the coyote will eat a badger. Some have even noted rare occasions when the coyote and the badger will work together to hunt their prey together here in the wild Utah ccountry! While the Badger is a truly ferocious animal, he does have his fair share of natural enemies including the aforementioned coyote, Golden Eagles, Bobcats, Black Bears, Grey Wolves (though not in Utah), and especially the Mountain Lion. While most predators will only attack a small Badger, the Mountain Lion will often take down a full-grown adult! The Badger’s range in widespread, covering not onlu Utah; but most of the Continental United States, Central Canada, and much of Mexico. Although he is present in both Zion as well as Bryce Canyon National Parks, as well as the Utah mountains and deserts that lie between Bryce Canyon and Zion, the Badger is still quite rarely seen. This is because the Badger is a nocturnal mammal and is almost never active during the day. When the Badger is seen, it is usually for only a few brief moments before he uses his enormous claws to speedily burrow into the ground and escape. His burrowing habits make him much more likely to be found in an area with soft soil or Utah clay that is easy for him to dig into. Utah has many places that are full of malpais or volcanic rock where it is incredibly difficult to dig and sometimes even difficult to walk. The Badger is not likely to be found in such a rocky place as this. The large tunnels created by Badgers as they chase their prey or escape detection are typically all that is seen. Here at Rising K Ranch, we have several badger tunnels within only a few hundred yards in any direction. In one area about a mile away there used to be an entire Utah prairie dog town and the Badgers (or at least their tunnels) would often be seen in that area. In somewhat the same manner as a skunk, the Badger is able to emit a powerful odor from special scent glands. He is a rather solitary creature, conversing with others of his kind only during mating season, which is in late summer. During the winter the Badger does not hibernate, but he does become significantly less active. As with most of Utah's wildlife, your best chances of seeing a Badger from horseback will be to ride out when the sun is only barely coming up and to ride quietly, keeping your eyes on the areas all around you rather than just focusing on the ground in front of you or on your horse's ears.  One of my favorite of Utah’s mammals, though quite rarely seen, is the Ringtail or Cacomistle. His nocturnal lifestyle as well as his coloring and size are somewhat similar to Utah’s raccoons; but he is much more cat-like than a raccoon. In fact, he is rather like a cross between a fox, a cat and a raccoon! He is typically about 2 pounds and about 15 inches long in the body with an equally long tail. It is this long tail that gives him his name, being long and bushy with alternating black and white rings, ending with a black tip. It is this long, extraordinary tail that provides the Ringtails a great deal of balance as they lithely climb trees as a means of escape, attack, rest, and recreation. Since they are nocturnal, they often spend their days resting in the treetops, making them quite difficult to spot. Often, the only means of spotting a Ringtail will be to find their long tail dangling from a high-up tree bough! Although the Ringtail preys upon other animals, he is also a prey animal himself and must always be on the lookout for such enemies as foxes, coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, hawks, eagles and owls.
Found primarily in America’s southwestern states and into the majority of Mexico, the Ringtail prefer to live in rocky and densely wooded areas and is known to kill his prey in much the same manner as a cat, lying in wait until they suddenly pounce and kill by means of a strong bite to the neck. Their prey most commonly includes rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits, snakes, lizards and frogs. Although he does prey upon these animals, the Ringtail is an omnivore whose primary food is berries and insects as long as they can be found. It is during the winter months when such food is scarce that the Ringtail typically turns to a more carnivorous diet. Since the Ringtail, if it can be captured at a young age, can be quite easily tamed or domesticated, it was once used by miners for the purpose of keeping rodent populations to a minimum within the mines; which gave the Ringtail yet another name: “Miner’s Cat.” In Utah, the Ringtail can be found in both Zion as well as Bryce Canyon National Park. However, it would require quite a lot of patience, silence and luck, as well as a readiness to keep watch all through the night. Although he may be in the tall pine trees just above your head, you are not at all likely to see the Ringtail with your own eyes.  The Racoon seems to be just at home in the middle of a highly populated neighbourhood as he is in the middle of Utah’s most isolated mountain ranges. Not only are raccoons prominent in Utah, but their range covers almost the entirety of the continental US, southern Canada, and most of Mexico. While there are several subspecies, Utah’s raccoons are typically the Common Raccoon, which is 16-26 inches long in his gray and black body and 8-12 inches long in his bushy, ringed tail, with the famous dark eye mask and quite nimble little paws which resemble hands.
A nocturnal animal, the Raccoon prefers to dwell close to water, and will often feed on crayfish found in country streams, ponds, and lakes. Around both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, you will often find the hand-like print of a raccoon in the Utah mud close to some form of water. Though he loves crayfish, the raccoon also seems to love every other remotely edible item, thriving on berries, eggs, grains, garbage, carrion, small rodents, insects and nuts. The Raccoon has an unusual habit of often dunking their food in water before they eat it. While some believe this to be due to a sense of cleanliness, it is also quite likely that his food-dunking habit comes from his natural instinct to catch food found in water (such as Crayfish.) Raccoons do not hibernate; but in areas such as Bryce Canyon where it gets cold, raccoons are usually much less active during the winter, sometimes remaining for whole days inside their den. Raccoons mate in late winter in order to give birth in the warmer Springtime weather, with each litter yielding an average of four young. A baby Raccoon, called a Kit or a Cub, will often stay with its mother through its first winter until the arrival of the following Spring. While Raccoons may be found in both places, I personally have seen far more raccoons in the Zion area than I have in the Bryce Canyon area, and I have only rarely seen raccoons or sign of raccoons, here at Rising K Ranch itself.  The Gapper’s Red-backed Mouse, also called the Red-Backed Vole, is a small, brown mammal that is quite numerous in many coniferous forests throughout Canada, the Rocky Mountains, and the Appalachians. He is an extraordinary tree climber and will often climb all over dead and live trees in search of a place to build a nest. Through his constant gnawing on the tree bark, the Gapper’s Red-Backed Mouse has been known at times to kill trees as large as a foot in diameter.
With its many predators, the Gapper’s Red-Backed Mouse typically has a short lifespan; but it reproduces at such a high rate that he is often the most numerous mammal in the forest. As you may imagine, this small, bottom-of-the-food-chain mammal is highly important to the forest’s ecosystem. Dwelling more abundantly in the northern regions, and preferring to live in a more humid or moist environment, the Gapper’s Red-backed Mouse is more likely to be seen in Bryce Canyon than in Zion National Park, especially in an area where there is plenty of water and something of a marshland such as you may find just a few miles outside of Bryce Canyon National Park at a small reservoir called “Tropic Reservoir.”  Though perhaps few people in today's busy world pause to think or to meditate, the truth remains that even the smallest life on our beautiful planet is a veritable miracle- testimony to the Almighty God’s Power, Wisdom, Beauty, and Creativity. Even in its current, sin-affected condition, I do believe God derives pleasure from the beauty of His creation, and I do believe He appreciates the beauty of each flower, bird, and fish that is in it. It would not surprise me at all to one day find out that the most beautiful of all His flowers had been placed in total isolation from the business of man, existing solely for the pleasure of God’s eyes alone. These articles, however, are written for those few of you out there who do intend to discover the intricacies of the created world, and who do have such a mind as would like to separate from common fools in order to attain wisdom in all manner of things. (Please note, I do not mean to say that all wise people will necessarily love my articles; but rather that all wise people will find learning itself fascinating, though they may choose to attain knowledge from a loftier source than my simple “blogs.”)
One such intricacy of the animal kingdom is that of the difference between the shrew and the mole. While moles and shrews seem quite similar, here are a few of the most obvious distinctions: Shrews are more akin to the mouse in their body shape and are sometimes even smaller than most mice. Moles are usually fatter in their shape and larger in their overall body size. Shrews have a thinner tail than a mole. The Shrew’s tail is usually about an inch long (though in the case of the Masked Shrew it is often 2 inches long) and is thin, causing it to appear longer. In addition to the thinner appearance, the Shrew usually has some hair growing on his tail. A mole, however, has a stubbier-looking tail with little to no hair on it depending on the exact species. The eyes of both the Shrew and the Mole are quite tiny. However, in the case of the Mole, the eyes are even more diminutive, with some species being totally blind, having skin covering their eyes. Both Moles and Shrews also have a long snout; but the Shrew’s snout is more mouse-like and has hair almost entirely to the tip while the mole’s snout is hairless and pink in colour. The feet are perhaps the most striking difference, Whie a shrew has claws that are suitable for creating burrows, his feet are not too unlike those of many small mammals. A mole, on the other hand, is completely unique, being equipped with special feet designed for two purposes only- burrowing quickly through soil and paddling quickly through water. Unlike the Shrew, the soles of the Mole’s feet face outward, causing him to appear as though his feet were put on backwards! Here at Rising K Ranch, we will likely be too busy riding horses all over the hills and enjoying Utah’s beautiful red peaks and pine-covered mountains to be looking down at tiny little moles and shrews; but it is nonetheless amazing to ponder upon the many types of wildlife that dwell, not only on ground level with us, but above us in the trees and sky and even beneath us in the ground and streams!  At about 4 inches, the Masked Shrew is one of Utah’s smaller mammals. He has a brown body and a tail that is longer than the tails of most species of shrew. Although he is small, the Masked Shrew is a veritable bag of ferocious energy and is able to thrive in a greater diversity of habitat than any other North American mammal. Feeling just as comfortable in the grassy fields and marshlands as he does in the Rocky Mountain’s forests and peaks, the Masked Shrew thrives on a diet that is every whit as diverse as his habitat, feasting on such comestibles as insects, worms, mollusks and even scavenging from carcasses! Although he swells in a great diversity of climates, it does seem somewhat more likely for the Masked Shrew to be found in the Bryce Canyon area than in the Zion National Park area, due to the fact that the number of Masked Shrews tends to increase the further north you go, with his range only barely extending into Utah and New Mexico.
Rather than engage in manual labour, the Masked Shrew typically prefers to make use of burrows that have been created by other species of burrowing mammals. Using dried grass, the Masked Shrew will often improve his living situation inside these abandoned tunnels by building a small nest. The Masked Shrew remains active all year long, even through the cold Utah winters (and even through the cold Alaskan and Canadian winters for that matter!) Not only is he active all throughout the year; but he is also active all day and night, taking only small naps. Each year, the female Masked Shrew will bear several litters of young, with each litter consisting of up to 10 individuals. However, due to his many predators such as birds of prey, snakes, foxes, leopard frogs, brown trout, other shrews, weasels, and even bluebirds, as well as disease and long, cold winters, it is rare for a Masked Shrew to live longer than just one year.  Requiring cold climates, the Snowshoe Hare is much more likely to be seen in Zion than in Bryce Canyon National Park. Named after his remarkable feet, the snowshoe hare is able to walk on top of the snow. While the Jackrabbit used his great, broad ears as a means of dispersing his body heat into the air to stay alive in extreme heat, the Snowshoe Hare uses his great, broad feet as a means of walking and running on the surface of the snow and thus escape predators, forage, and survive in extremely snowy climates.
Also called the “Varying Hare’, the Snowshoe Hare changes color each year from brown in the summer to pure white in the winter. This, of course, is his camouflage to keep from being spotted by predators such as lynx, bobcats, weasels, martens, fishers, minks, coyotes, wolves, Mountain Lions, owls, eagles and hawks. Due to his snowy white coat, the Snowshoe Hare is a prized specimen to the hunters and trappers during the winter. Due to his love of the cold weather, the Snowshoe Hare is much more likely (though still rather rarely)to be spotted in Bryce Canyon National Park than in Zion. The prefer a densely wooded and even shrubby climate such as is common in Utah;s higher elevations where scrub oak is common and thick. Their love for extremely dense vegetation as a home is one of the reasons the Snowshoe Hare is not nearly as easy to find as the Jackrabbit. Out here at Rising K Ranch, I can recall only one time I have ever seen a Snowshoe Hare. It was during the winter when I was around 16 years old, and I was only riding a horse of my own as the horseback trail ride had not yet even been conceived as an idea. The Snowshoe Hare is active all year ‘round. In the warm months, he lives on whatever green feed he pleases, having at his disposal an abundance of grasses, leaves, and even raspberries in some areas! In the winter, however, his diet consists of whatever he can find, even if it is only pine needles, twigs, tree bark, and sometimes even meat scavenged off of dead animals. What a relief spring must be to the Snowshoe Hare! |