COURTESY HAWAII DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE
A live skunk was captured Thursday at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 1. The skunk was euthanized to be tested for rabies, state officials said.
For the second time this month, a live skunk has been captured at a Hawaii harbor, state officials said today.
On Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection staff saw a skunk at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 1 and contacted inspectors with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture & Biosecurity’s Plant Quarantine Branch, officials said.
Inspectors searched the area but did not find the skunk. They set four traps with cat food, and dockworkers notified inspectors later Thursday that the skunk had been caught in a trap, according to a Department of Agriculture news release.
Agricultural officials said the skunk was “humanely euthanized and a test for rabies is being conducted.”
On Nov. 7, Plant Quarantine Branch inspectors captured a skunk hiding in the undercarriage of a vehicle at Hilo Harbor. Department officials said the skunk was caught by loading the vehicle into a shipping container and setting traps using cat food. The rabies test on the Hilo skunk was negative.
As a precaution, officials said, Hilo inspectors maintained traps in the area for the past week but no other skunks were captured.
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Agriculture officials said they presume that both skunks “hitchhiked aboard cargo ships.”
Skunks are prohibited in Hawaii. State officials say they are avid egg-eaters and would pose a threat to the islands’ native ground-nesting birds.
They inhabit the continental U.S., Canada, South America, Mexico and other parts of the world. In the U.S., they are recognized as one of four primary wild carriers of rabies, a fatal viral disease of mammals that is often transmitted through the bite of an infected animal, state officials said. Hawaii is the only state and one of the few places in the world that is free of rabies, they said.
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To report sightings of invasive species, call the state’s toll-free Pest Hotline at 808-643-7378.