Pity the poor skunk. Its identity is wholly linked to its rank scent, so much so that it draws singular ridicule from humankind as a metaphor for all that stinks. Watch a Pepe Le Pew cartoon, and you would think that skunks were the only noxious animals in the animal kingdom.

It's a notion, of course, that's just rotten. There are plenty of animals that stink, but because of their relative obscurity they've avoided public scrutiny.