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What’s black, white and being considered for endangered species status? According to new regulatory actions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the plains spotted skunk answers that riddle.
The plains spotted skunk is a squirrel-sized, black-and-white creature that lives in prairies and forests across the Great Plains region. It’s found in 11 central U.S. states.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a year-long study to decide whether to protect the skunk under the Endangered Species Act.
“They're really cute. They're so small. Not many people know about them,” said Danielle Brosend, a wildlife researcher and PhD student at Oklahoma State University. “Also, they do handstands, which is really neat for an animal that occurs in some people's backyards.”
The handstand is a defensive maneuver used to show off its spots, making it look larger and warning that it’s about to spray.
But even the most dedicated wildlife-watchers may have never seen a plains spotted skunk. It’s become a rare sight – and researchers are still trying to figure out exactly why.
Brosend studied plains spotted skunk populations in southeastern Oklahoma as a master’s student. She said there isn’t a clear estimate of how many there are.
“A lot of the interest in the species has been more recent, like in the past 20-ish years,” Brosend said. “We know some information from trapping records and anecdotally talking to people who have seen them, but there's no sound number.”
States north of Kansas have fewer known habitat locations and fewer regular sightings of the skunk. For example, in Nebraska, the last reported sighting was in November 2025. Before that, one hadn’t been reported in the state since 2017.
Researchers' best guess for the lower northern populations is habitat loss. As large-scale industrial agriculture operations take over and prairies decline, Brosend said spotted skunks may be losing safe areas to hide and flourish.
“We really don't have any one thing that we can point at to say, ‘Oh, most of them died because of a disease, or oh, they were overhunted,’” Brosend said. “We have some ideas of what happened, but no solid evidence.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service could soon shed some light on why the plains spotted skunk is so elusive.
“During the upcoming status review, the Service will fully evaluate potential threats to the species and review the best scientific and commercial information available,” the agency wrote in a July 13 press release. “This review will determine whether listing the species under the Endangered Species Act is warranted, not warranted, or warranted but precluded.”
Brosend said she’s glad to see an understudied species receive attention, but the potential for an endangerment designation is bittersweet.
“It's exciting, but also kind of scary, because what if the populations really are crashing? Can we help in a meaningful way that means that we don't lose this really interesting species?” she said.
Petitioning
To list a species as federally threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service has a set review process.
First, a person or group submits a citizen petition asking the agency to look into a species. Then, the Fish and Wildlife Service conducts a 90-day review period to see if current information on the species warrants a deeper look. If there is, the agency conducts a 12-month analysis of the species, and the results are used to rule if the species should be considered threatened or endangered.
In July 2025, prairie restoration organization Grasslands Unlimited submitted the petition for the plains spotted skunk.
“We kind of distilled all of the research that was out there, but we did not do the research ourselves,” said executive director Trevor Pellerite. “The people who did the research are the ones who made it possible.”
But Pellerite said moving the petition forward didn’t go as planned. The 90-day window for Fish and Wildlife to review it came and went.
“Then 120 days came and went, and we were not getting any information from Fish and Wildlife, and we wanted an update. We wanted to know what the timeline was on action,” Pellerite said.
Grasslands Unlimited filed a lawsuit in February alleging the agency was not meeting their statutory requirements by delaying the petition review period.
“We are not willing to wait another 11 years for this species to be protected, and so we filed a lawsuit early on to force the issue,” he said.
In 2012, a different citizen petition on the plains spotted skunk was submitted to the Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2023, 11 years later, the agency determined “the species is not at risk of extinction now or in the foreseeable future” based on the information available at the time.
Pellerite said new research out of Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota surfaced after that 2023 decision.
“The conclusion of those research projects were unequivocal and consistent – that the plain spotted skunk doesn't exist where it used to exist, and imminent conservation action is needed to protect it from going extinct,” Pellerite said.
The Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in the Federal Register that Grasslands Unlimited’s 2025 petition presented new information “suggesting that isolated extreme weather conditions, climate change, and the trends in land conversion from grasslands to large scale agriculture may be threats to the plains spotted skunk.” It also cited the new studies on low populations from Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota.
Pellerite said the lawsuit will likely be dismissed now that the federal agency has moved forward with the 12-month study.
As an advocate for healthy prairies, Pellerite said Grasslands Unlimited is dedicated to protecting all wildlife – not just the plains spotted skunk.
“It's not any more or less important than any other species. If we want healthy ecosystems, then all of the animals that evolved to be a part of that ecosystem have to be protected,” he said. “Everything that nature put on the prairie serves a function, whether we understand it or not.
What now?
Researchers and environmentalists are eager to learn more about the plains spotted skunk from the year-long review.
That’s more difficult for researchers in northern states, says University of Missouri professor and urban ecologist Christine Brodsky. While working at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, Brodsky, her students and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks studied the plains spotted skunk in 2022 and 2023 – or tried to, at least.
“We worked with a whole bunch of private landowners and public agencies to deploy around 600 cameras across the state over a two-year period to try to detect plain spotted skunks. And unfortunately, with that effort, we didn't get to detect any of them,” Brodsky said.
But the study wasn’t a waste. The researchers collected data on other species — and the lack of detections proved the plains spotted skunk was in need of conservation.
“When we look at the habitat where we did detect them back in 2020, they seem to prefer areas with less intensive agricultural practices and more grassland,” Brodsky said. “We've definitely seen the state change over time – over decades, centuries of various agricultural practices, urbanization – and correspondingly, this species has been in decline in that relative time period.”
Oklahoma State’s Danielle Brosend had a bit more luck in southeastern Oklahoma. The population she studied for three years in Ouachita National Forest lived in the largely untouched nature preserve.
“I had about 30 sites that I had spotted skunks at — 30 individual sites. So, I think it's safe to say there's at least 30 individuals down there,” she said.
The preserve gives the plains spotted skunk lots of places to hide. Unlike regular striped skunks, she said the plains spotted skunk can climb trees, and it’s way smaller, maxing out at about two pounds.
They’re also a fan of sardines.
“We found that sardines tend to do a good job [as lures,] and we think that's because it mimics carrion or dead, decaying stuff. They are scavengers in a sense. They're essentially -- I wouldn't say true carnivores, but they're more carnivorous than their striped cousins.”
If you see a plains spotted skunk, report it to your state or local fish and wildlife, game and parks or natural resource department, and take a picture if possible.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
