Rodney Block, age 9, of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, for his question:

Do skunks use their scent when they fight each other?

Mr. Skunk is not a scrappy fellow. Most of the time he would rather not get into a fierce fight. But once in awhile, another Mr. Skunk makes him angry and the two of them start a battle. This almost always happens in the courting season when the two black and white fellows are all slicked up to go calling on a lady skunk. And the scrap begins when they are both there to catch the eye of the same sweetheart.

Then the two fellows get jealous, so jealous that they lose their tempers. They quite forget their everyday good manners. Face to face, they growl at each other and stamp their feet. Sometimes this is enough and one skunk goes away, defeated without a fight. But if neither one backs down, they soon start batting, biting and clawing each other. As a rule, no gentleman skunk sprays his scent on another skunk. But once in a great while, the jealous scrappers get so mad that they forget this bit of politeness. One may spray the other and win the fight. If both of them spray, nobody wins and the fight ends in a smelly disaster.