A Behavior I Have Never Seen Before 

      The other night I awoke in the middle of the night to a horrid noise.  It was the squealing of some animal.  At first I thought that it was maybe my cat killing some kind of small creature.  My cat does that.  In fact I sometimes think that the cat food I give him is merely a supplement for his regular diet of small creatures.  At least he's not wasting his kills, nor is he killing for fun.  Usually when I go out in the morning to see what he has done I just find a little tuft or so of fur, or a tail, foot or something.  
      This squeaking though, went on and on.  It was loud and wouldn't quit.  So I got up, grabbed a flashlight and went to one of the windows to see what this commotion was.  As I shone the light through the window, my disgust and possibly also horror was magnified.  I was simultaneously mildly perplexed.  

      What I saw was a large skunk.  This sucker was huge.  He was about 18 inches long and about a foot wide.  The disgusting part (besides being a skunk right outside my window by the door of my back porch) was that this large skunk was on top of another much smaller skunk and attacking it viciously.  
      The smaller skunk was on its back and screaming, while the monster skunk was tearing into it with its sharp teeth.  I could hear the tearing sounds as he dug in.  I could also hear the sound of tooth against bone.  Eventually the smaller skunk died.  The large skunk continued to tear into the other one.  I realized that this was an act of cannibalism.  The large skunk was actually eating the smaller skunk.  My disgust level shot right through the roof.  This is also what perplexed me though.  
      I have lived in the woods all my life, and have never once seen nor even heard of cannibalism in skunks.  My brain tried to think logically through all possible explanations.  Was it a territorial killing?  If it was, it would have stopped when it accomplished killing the intruder to his feeding grounds.  Was it killing the offspring of a female?  I never heard of that among skunks, and again, if it was it would have stopped once the smaller skunk was dead.  Was it starving?  Not at all.  I had a freezer quit working, and lost a lot of food.  It stunk to high heaven, so it was not going into my garbage can to gag me for a week until garbage day, so I dumped it all out at the end of my field.  The skunk right now has plenty to eat.  The only answer I had then was that this skunk is a complete freak.  Maybe it was rabid or something. 
      I grabbed my '22 and headed out to the back porch (as I can't have a rabid skunk out at large).  I took a big chance at opening that porch door.  This fight and cannibalism was only a foot outside the door.  I was afraid that as soon as I opened the door the large beast would spray me, or at least spray inside of the porch. 
      When I swung the door open it had to swing right out and over the skunk's head.  It was so absorbed in the activity of eating one of its own species, that it never even paid ant attention to the door or me, nor even the porch light I had turned on.  The skunk took no heed to me at all, but just continued to eat the other one. 
      When I shot I made sure to hit it along the back, so it wouldn't be able to lift its tail and spray.  The little one however, had already sprayed the entire contents of its stink gland all over the walls, the door of the porch and even the ground back there was soaked by the spray.  I'm gong to have to buy about fifteen gallons of vinegar and get some kind of a spray gun to apply it.  

      If you have ever heard of cannibalism in skunks, please let me know in a comment.