Investigating factors that influence detection of mesocarnivores and drivers of plains spotted skunk dynamic occupancy in southeastern Oklahoma

Mesocarnivores are important components of ecosystems, but many are difficult to monitor and subsequently understudied. Monitoring strategies commonly include olfactory attractants (i.e., lures) to increase detection, but species-specific effects of lures are not well understood. Plains spotted skunks (Spilogale interrupta) are an understudied mesocarnivore that have experienced range-wide declines in recent history. Plains spotted skunks are elusive (i.e., hard to detect) and rare (i.e., occur in low densities) and therefore determining effective monitoring techniques and estimating population dynamics is important to inform management and conservation for this species. To address knowledge gaps in monitoring techniques for mesocarnivores broadly and plains spotted skunks specifically, we established a novel study design to evaluate the effects of four different olfactory attractants (i.e., sardines in oil, skunk-based lure, fatty acid tablets, and sweet lure) on detection of seven mesocarnivore species: plains spotted skunks, striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), northern raccoons (Procyon lotor), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), coyotes (Canis latrans), bobcats (Lynx rufus), and Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana) within an occupancy framework. We evaluated species-specific preferences when lure influenced detection. We found that lure combinations influenced daily detection probabilities of five species and that sardines were preferred by plains spotted skunks, northern raccoons, and gray foxes, whereas striped skunks preferred skunk-based lure. We also established a three-year study to evaluate dynamic occupancy of plains spotted skunks and investigate population dynamics while considering a suite of covariates hypothesized to influence detection, initial occupancy, colonization, and local extinction. We found evidence that plains spotted skunk initial occupancy was negatively influenced by concealment and percent forest had a weak positive influence. Plains spotted skunk occupancy was estimated to be 0.21, 0.30, and 0.34 in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively. We found evidence that the plains spotted skunk population in our study area was stable from 2023–2025 under the observed conditions. Our results provide support for a novel sampling design for monitoring rare and elusive species and advance the understanding of occupancy associations and population dynamics of plains spotted skunks.