THE ENQUIRER (Cinncinnati, Ohio) 09 August 07 Springdale couple rids stinky reputation from skunks (Andrea Reeves)
Springdale: Cody Hildebrand says skunks have some qualities humans don't have - not including fur and the ability to spray enemies with a acrid liquid.
It's the skunks ability to live and let live in its environment with other animals and to share.
"You can learn a lot from a skunk. Actually, they're better to work with than people," she said, chuckling.
Cody, 63, and her husband, Arnold, 60, have devoted 30 years to studying their furry black-and-white-striped friends in an attempt to educate the masses about their docile, friendly and surprisingly not-so-stinky little neighbors.
Many people think skunks spray everyone in sight. But that's not so, says Cody.
In fact, they often come right up to people, said Arnold, though they don't recommend people try to get them to do so, or to touch skunks, since they are wild animals.
If they do perceive a threat, skunks stomp their feet as a warning, then they spray.
"Spraying is a last resort. They don't like the smell of it either," she said.
Skunks are beneficial, too.
"You will never have termites around your house if you have a skunk, you won't have snakes, or harmful insects," said Cody.
Cody's passion for skunks began when she cared for a baby skunk that couldn't walk when she had a raise-and-release-permit with the Cincinnati Zoo.
It's then she realized that so little was known about the habits of skunks.
Since then, she's raised and lived with more than 34 skunks.
Now she and Arnold both have educational permits with the Ohio Department Of Natural Resources Division Of Wildlife, which allows them to work under the department's permission and supervision to film and document wild skunks in southern Ohio state and county parks through their organization, Wild Brother Animal Behavior Study.
So about two nights a week, the couple can be found tramping in the woods of a Hamilton County park, Houston Woods State Park or East Fork State Park, camera equipment in hand, and often, wild skunks curiously following right at their heels.
They use this footage to study how skunks are faring in the wild and with living in close proximity with people and pets - a living situation Cody says skunks choose.
"People are going to have to learn to live with each other and wildlife," said Cody.
"If they go away, we will go away because everything's intertwined."

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