I have heard that it is common for rehabilitation centers to receive Great Horned Owls that reek of skunk musk. Skunks must be tasty if they are a favorite prey animal. We might also conclude that owls can't smell them, or else they wouldn't be such a common target!
Owls could be called microsmatic. If we break that word down into its roots, micro- means very small and -osmatic refers to the sense of smell. So that means that owls have a small, or poorly-developed, sense of smell.
A quick Google image search for "owl and skunk" revealed some neat artwork of the relationship between these two animals. I was particularly intrigued by Michelle Osinga's felted scene (left), a watercolor by Pueblo artist Awa Tsireh (center), and a depiction in Charley Harper's iconic style (right) which came with a delightful description:
"How do you like your skunk steak? Rare? Rarely? Not this great horned owl—he’s taking his on the hoof, for a midnight snack. It’s plenty smelly, but it fills his belly. Sure it’s stink, stank, stunk when he confiscates a skunk—he’ll even end up with a skunky bunk. But when it comes down to sink or starve, it’s better to be fed than dead. The skunk was planning to eat in when the owl dropped by—it’s only once in a lifetime he gets taken out for dinner." –Charley Harper
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