Filial Cannibalism

Not burying the lede here on Mammal Monday. Gruesomeness ahead.

I rarely see any of Green-Wood’s Striped Skunk/Mephitis mephitis population alive, but I sure smell ’em. This one, however, was boldly out in full daylight. And giving birth.

She proceeded to eat the afterbirth. The baby, however, did not look like it was moving.

At this stage, I no longer thought she was trying to lick it clean or revive it like a patient in The Pitt.

No, she ate it.

All of it.

Here’s some reading on filial cannibalism, “common and taxonomically widespread across the animal kingdom.”