Last night at a barbeque in Baie d’Urfe, an affluent suburb of Montreal, the festivities were suddenly interrupted by a cry from one of the guests, ‘Skunk!’ and everybody grabbed hold of their dogs, children, etc., to prevent them chasing after the notoriously smelly critters. They release a pungent pong to deter attackers, and apparently the smell can linger on clothing, skin or fur for up to a month.
Today I went with my friend Toby and his 2-year-old daughter Anna to see some (marginally) less smelly mammals at the Ecomuseum. Coyotes, bears, lynx, wolves, owls, bald eagles, caribou, chipmunks and raccoons.
Toby is an adventure filmmaker, and we’ve been reviewing my Atlantic footage with a view to making a documentary and/or creating a pilot episode for a series about the Pacific bid. I’ve been getting some top tips on video editing techniques, and also watching Toby’s videos of his adventures in Tibet, Mongolia, the Atlantic and the Sahara. I’ve learned a lot.
Another thing I’ve learned – further to last night’s events, apparently the best known antidote to skunk stink is to bathe in tomato juice. I don’t know who found this out, or how. If you were skunk-ed, would your first instinct be to bathe in Bloody Marys?
Sorry – no photos of skunks. Didn’t want to risk contamination. It’s hard enough staying vaguely fragrant in 30 degrees and high humidity anyway, without adding skunkiness into the equation.
