Yesterday, this blog got nearly 500 hits from the search term “zorilla.”
I had only mentioned this species on a post in which I revealed the identity of a spotted skunk’s skeleton. I also explained the origin of the term “polecat” for skunks, which comes from a misunderstanding that zorillas and skunks are close relatives. Zorillas are also called “striped polecats,” but as we now know, skunks and stink badgers are in their own family, Mephitidae. Zorillas and other polecats are in the family Mustelidae, which includes otters, mink, true badgers, weasels, wolverines, martens, stoats, fishers, and tayras. Most mustelids do have the anal glands that can produce the strong odor that we associate with skunks, and the zorilla has particularly potent scent glands. But that still does not make them skunks.
The reason why I posted the information above is that a zorilla appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. Jack Hanna was the guest, and as anyone who has seen him on television knows, he brings out zoo animals and talks about them.
When I did a Google search on zorillas, I found that many people reporting on Jack Hanna’s presentation were calling the zorilla an African skunk. I wondered if Jack Hanna got something wrong, so I looked for the clip. When I found it, it turns out that it was Dave Letterman who calls it a skunk, but Jack Hanna clearly says that it is “like a ferret.” Hanna didn’t get a much of a chance to talk about the animal, because he was too busy putting it in Letterman’s shirt and then saying that it was the smelliest animal in the world. Nice gag, but I think the viewing public misunderstood what a zorilla is.
Here’s the clip:
Zorillas are not skunks at all.
They are a really good example of parallel evolution. Both of these animals share a common ancestor in the order Carnivora, in the suborder Caniformia, and the superfamily Musteloidea. However, both zorillas and skunks developed very strong anal secretions and the black and white “warning” color pattern independently of each other. No other Musteloids have this coloration.
I’ll say it one more time: Zorillas are not not skunks.
I would totally own one of those.
OK, zorillas are not skunks. But in a recent post on gorillas, you say something to the effect that gorillas became cows and humans became wolves during their evolution….without putting quotes around “cows” and “wolves” to denote that the words were being used in a metaphorical sense. Perhaps Letterman was using “skunk” in a similar manner.
Yes, I was an English major and former proofreader….. ;-)
I must correct myself. It was “ancient African apes” (not yet gorillas nor humans) that were said to become “cows” –i.e.,gorillas– and “wolves” –i.e., humans. My apologies.
Of course we should understand that those ancient apes didn’t become actual cows or wolves, but it’s so easy to take it too literally…
And just maybe a zorilla is, metaphorically, a skunk.
Okay, a zorilla is a polecat. As I understand it, some of the Old West miners, and probably others, made pets out of polecats because they were lonely.
So, do polecats make better pets than skunks?
No, I’ve not advocating making pets out of wild critters, per se.
I’m just curious.
The animal called the “Miner’s cat” was the ringtail, a relative of the raccoon. http://shelledy.mesa.k12.co.us/staff/computerlab/images/CO_Mammals_ringtail_cat2.jpg
The domestic ferret is actually a domestic polecat. European polecats and ferrets may be the same species or the result of hybridizing and domesticating European and Steppe polecat species. Those two polecats look like ferrets. The only New World polecat is the black-footed ferret, which is quite endangered. New Zealand has a feral population of European polecat/domestic ferret hybrids that are causing a lot of trouble with ground nesting birds.
Also, the European mink isn’t a mink. It is a semi-aquatic polecat that has hybridized with the European polecat. American mink cannot do this.