By PETER BOYLAN Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Share this story

A skunk was captured, euthanized and tested for rabies after it was found running around Kakaako Waterfront Park in Honolulu on Wednesday night, state officials said Thursday.

The Honolulu Police Department contacted the state Department of Agriculture and three agriculture inspectors were dispatched at about 10:30 p.m., according to a news release from DOA.

ADVERTISING

“When the inspectors arrived at the scene, police officers had contained the skunk in a plastic trash bin. Inspectors took custody of the skunk and it has been humanely euthanized to test for the rabies virus,” officials said in the release.

The skunk did not spray the police officers, but state officials who captured skunks previously have had to dispose of their protective gear after the animals attempted to defend itself.

The “origin of the skunk is not known” but the park is adjacent to Honolulu Harbor where skunks have been “previously captured after apparently hitchhiking aboard cargo ships,” officials said.

Skunks were spotted and captured by stevedores at Honolulu Harbor in February 2018, January 2021, July 2021 and June 2022, according to the state.

On Maui, a live skunk was captured at Kahului Harbor in December 2020 and one was captured at a trucking company in August 2018.

Also on Maui, Department of Land and Natural Resources personnel captured a skunk at Kanaha Pond State Wildlife Sanctuary in August 2022.

In February 2023, a Hilo resident caught a skunk in a mongoose trap.

All the skunks in the previous cases tested negative for rabies, officials said.

Skunks are prohibited in Hawaii and are “avid egg-eaters and would pose a threat to Hawaii’s native ground-nesting birds” if they were able to thrive here. They are recognized as one of the “four primary wild carriers of rabies,” a fatal viral disease transmitted through the bite of an infected animal.

“Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. and one of the few places in the world that is free of rabies,” state agricultural officials said.

Sightings or captures of illegal and invasive species should be reported to the state’s toll-free Pest Hotline at 808-643-PEST (7378).