Animal Discovery

February 28, 1806

Today we found this very unusual animal that we named the Pole-cat (Stripped Skunk). Today we have seen about three and its only midday. These animals are black with two white stripes going down from their head to the end of their tail. Their whole body (including the tail) is about 20-28 inches long. The Pole-cats body is about seven inches wide. We found some of these animals under boulders, in burrows in the ground and under a rock pile. The Pole-cat is an Omnivore because we saw a few eating mice and some eating plants. We mostly saw these animals out at dawn and dusk, but sometimes we saw some during the day. One of my men tried to capture one but it sprayed him with a very unpleasant smelling odor from its anus. I believe that if this animal feels threatened by another animal, it sprays its odor at the animal it feels threatened by. The smell lasted for about two weeks and then finally went away. Pole-cats can spray the odor up to 10-25 feet! I would consider these animals more dangerous than prairie wolfs because of the smell they give off.