My introduction to the community and a new site for Yucatan Spotted Skunk
Hi everyone! My name is Daniel Dahan. I’m relatively new to the mammalwatching world, and wanted to introduce myself. I was on Jan’s amazing tour to China in 2024 where Lennart wrote a fantastic trip report, with arguably the most stunning photo of a wild panda ever taken.
Here is a link to his trip report:
I was also mentioned in Jon Hall’s trip report in Brazil, where he was a trip guide for the very first time. It’s nice to have a mammalwatching god as your guide! Here is a link to his trip report:
I have been lurking on this site for a few years now, but it is time for me to step out of the shadows. I have also been following Mark Bozon’s Big Cat Year for some time now, and am rooting for him from the sidelines. While Mark is doing his Big Cat Year, I have been quietly doing my Big Mammal Year. Possibly one of the first ones.
So far, I have been to 11 countries and am currently on Jon’s Madagascar trip, making that country number 12. I have seen almost 380 mammal species to date. Unlike Marc, I am not so organized, and am unfortunately very far behind on writing my trip reports. However, hopefully that will change now that I am coming out of my shell.
To start interacting with you guys, here is a teaser of my trip to Mexico.
I wanted to give a shout out my friend Ichi from Mexico. He is one of the best guides I have ever had, and I believe has a reliable site for Yucatan Spotted Skunk. He is a student of legendary Juan Cruzado, who also guided me when I was in Mexico this year. When I wasn’t bat netting with Juan, Ichi was the one in the field doing night work with me. I hope he gets much more visibility in the coming years.
As for the Yucatan spotted skunk, Ichi has a garden named after his daughter, called the Amazilli Garden. It is full of orchids, his favorite flower, but more importantly for us, has frequently been visited by Yucatan Brocket and sometimes at night by Yucatan spotted skunk.
The location of the garden is here:
Amazili Wildlife Garden
20°40’01.0″N 88°28’00.0″W
I visited his garden on March, 2026. A few days before our successful night, we saw the skunk on the camera trap that Ichi installed in the garden. There is no hide, what we basically did was leave out a tin of cat food and sat in lawn chairs exposed to the elements all night. The cat food was located between two tunnel like corridors for the animals to move through, and our chairs were a reasonable distance away. We stayed quiet and thermaled, and after a few hours, the skunk appeared! The skunk visited at least 3 times that night. Once in p.m., once in, and once in. We were ecstatic, because this was one of Ichi’s first times seeing the Yucatan spotted skunk in real life.
With more funding, I believe Ichi’s garden will become a Mexico hotspot mammalwatching destination. Ichi wants to build a real, luxurious hide, and even has neighbors that with enough money he can buy more land from to expand the habitat of Yucatan peninsula’s endemic mammals.
So please reach out to him! He is always looking for new clients. Here is his Whatsapp phone number and Instagram:
Ichi’s Phone Number: +52 999 280 5117
Instagram: ichi_wildlife_tours
If you are craving a mammalwatching trip to Mexico, Ichi and Juan are now the dream team. Seen in this post is an image of the skunk I saw to get you guys excited for the full trip report.
I can’t wait to post more! Talk to you all soon!
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Jon Hall
Hallelujah!