occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Rounded Global Status Rank: TH - Possibly Extinct

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NH - Possibly Extirpated

Comments: Conepatus leuconotus and C. mesoleucus formerly were regarded as distinct species (Jones et al. 1992; Wozencraft, in Wilson and Reeder 1993). Dragoo and Honeycut (1995) examined morphological and molecular characters of Conepatus skunks and determined that (1) C. mesoleucus is not a species distinct from C. leuconotus, (2) Conepatus subspecies texensis, mearnsi, mesoleucus, nelsoni, venaticus, nicaraguae, sonoriensis, and filipensis should be lumped as C. leuconotus leuconotus, (3) subspecies figginsi and fremonti should be lumped as C. l. figginsi, and (4) C. mesoleucus telmalestes should be regarded as C. leuconotus telmalestes (though they suggested that further genetic research may indicate that telmalestes is not a valid taxon).