What are the chances of not smelling a wild skunk before you see it?

Last night, my mother and I ran across a live skunk on the side of the road. We didn't smell a thing. My worry is that it was someone's pet (as skunks are legal with permit where i live) thyat has gotten lose or was dumped. What's the likelyhood of not smelling a wild, scented skunk that's literaly two feet from your feet?





If the answer is ';slim'; I plan to go looking for it tonight and attempt to catch it, as skunks are awesome animals and I don't want anything bad to happen to it.What are the chances of not smelling a wild skunk before you see it?
Unless you startled it or it felt defensive the skunk would not necessarily assume a defensive posture and spray. I often see wild skunks in our area but unless one is afraid, feels threatened or is injured they generally are content to go about their merry way.





I would not suggest that you attempt to catch it, or any other wild animal, as they are not domesticated animals and can carry diseases such as rabies. If you decide to do so anyway, you might wish to inquire here beforehand as to how to remove skunk musk.What are the chances of not smelling a wild skunk before you see it?
if the skunk was not threatened you may not have smelled it.
If its not scared or alarmed it will not spray. It only uses it as protection.
Skunks themselves don't smell. That comes from a gland that they release when they feel threatened. If the skunk hadn't sprayed anywhere you wouldn't have smelled it.
Chances are the skunk you saw is long gone.


Either way - skunks won't spray unless they're repeatedly provoked - contrary to popular belief.


They have a natural odor to them - but it's NOTHING compared to the scent they expell out of self defense.


Think of a skunk spraying as similar to a rattle snake rattling its tail before it bites - the difference being that when a skunk feels threatened, before it'll spray it does a whole display to ward off the threat before it actually sprays (puffing itself up, hissing, splaying its tail and showing its anal glands and jumping around like a baboon).


It's probably a wild skunk, it just didn't feel threatened to spray.