Planet Zoo

The striped skunk (or Mephitis mephitis) is a small mammal found throughout North America, including southern Canada, the US and northern Mexico. It is a stocky animal with short legs, a broad build and bushy tail. Its narrow face has a pointed snout and small round ears. Striped skunks are covered in thick and coarse black and white fur and are named for their distinctive pattern: black fur with a white scalp that leads into two striped along their back and onto their tail. Male skunks are 38cm to 46cm long with a 33cm to 41cm long tail, and weigh 2kg to 5.5kg.

The red fox (or Vulpes vulpes) is a medium-sized canid that lives throughout Europe, Asia and North America, as well as areas of Northern Africa. Red foxes have thick red fur that may be grizzled with brown or black and has a white underside. The tail is long and bushy and the legs are characteristically black. Males measure 96cm to 115cm in total length, of which 32cm to 38cm are constituted by the tail, and stand 35cm to 50cm tall at the shoulder. They weigh between 4.3kg and 7.6kg.

The raccoon (or Procyon lotor) is a medium-sized mammal native throughout North America. It has grey-brown coarse hair, a long black-ringed tail, a pointed snout and distinctive facial markings often described as a ‘mask’ across the eyes. Raccoons have very dextrous front paws which they use like hands. Raccoons measure 41cm to 70cm in length, with tails adding a further 19cm to 40cm. Males are typically larger than females and weigh between 2.5kg and 10.4kg, whereas females weigh 1.8kg to 7.5kg. Size and weight vary greatly across subspecies, climate and time of year.

The common wombat (or Vombatus ursinus), also known as the coarse-haired or bare-nosed wombat, is a marsupial found in the scrub and woodlands of south eastern Australia and Tasmania. It has a squat, round build with short, muscular legs and a blunt snout. The body is covered in coarse grey-brown fur. Common wombats measure between 90cm and 115cm in length from nose to rump and weigh 22kg to 39kg. There are no obvious external differences between males and females.