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DISTRIBUTION
The North American Porcupine can be found in
most of Canada and the western U.S. south to Mexico. It can be found
south to Wisconsin, the northern half of Michigan, and most of Pennsylvania,
New York, and New England.. The preferred habitat of the North American
Porcupine is forest with mixed hardwood and softwood trees. The
genus is highly adaptable and may even be found in open tundra,
rangeland, and desert, but it usually stays in vegetated riparian
areas when it is away from forest. It is primarily terrestrial but
frequently ascends trees to heights of up to 60 feet in order to
find food. |
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DESCRIPTION
The North American Porcupine is the second
largest of all rodents. It has a small head, large, chunky
body with a high arching back and short legs. Its head and
body are 25 to 40 inches long, with a long, thick, muscular
tail growing as long as 8 inches. It weighs from 10 to 40
pounds.
The front half of its body is covered with
long, yellowish guard hairs. There are up to 30,000 quills
among the dark, coarse guard hairs of the back and tail. These
quills are the most |
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distinguishing characteristic of
the Porcupine. Actually modified hairs, the black-tipped,
yellowish quills are stiff, barbed spines about 3 inches long.
They are used as a defense mechanism that can be easily embedded
in another animals' flesh.
The Porcupine's feet have 4 toes
on the forefeet and 5 on the hindfeet, all with long, curved
claws and small textured knobby pads on the bottom. |
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DIET
The North American Porcupine's diet consists
of evergreen needles, cambium, bark, buds, twigs, roots, stems,
leaves, flowers, berries, nuts, and other vegetation. The porcupine
eats the soft tissue beneath the bark of trees during the winter.
Although this is beneficial for the porcupine, it may actually kill
the tree! |
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Porcupines are also known
by the
following names: Quill Pig and Quill Hog
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LIFE CYCLE/SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
North American Porcupines are arboreal and nocturnal,
meaning they live primarily in trees and are active mostly at night.
During the day, the North American Porcupine will sleep in a hollow
log or tree. Sometimes, they are found in burrows or wedged into
narrow cracks in rocky ledges. When a porcupine is relaxed, its
quills lie flat. This slow-moving, seemingly clumsy creature is
said never to attack. It may protect itself by climbing or fleeing,
but if cornered, it erects the quills, turns the rump toward the
source of danger, and rapidly lashes out with the barbed tail. The
quills are not thrown or shot, but they are so lightly attached
that when they enter the skin of an enemy, they become detached
from the porcupine. The quills then continue to work their way deeper
at a rate of up to 1 mm or more per hour and can cause death if
they puncture vital organs.
Despite this defense mechanism, the porcupine
is preyed upon by the great horned owl and many carnivorous mammals.
The bobcat, wolverine, and fisher are especially adept at flipping
the porcupine on its back to expose the unprotected underparts. |
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REPRODUCTION
In the fall or early winter, males seek
out females for mating. There is an elaborate courtship, involving
extensive vocalization and a comical kind of dance. The male
usually showers the female with urine before mating, and afterward
the female repels the male. The gestation period is 205-217
days, and the young are born from April to June. Litters generally
contain a single offspring, though there are rare records
of twins. The newborn is well developed; it weighs 340-640
grams, its eyes are open, it can walk about unsteadily, and
it is covered with long, black hair and short, soft quills.
It exhibits the typical defense reaction of turning the rump
toward danger, and within days it can climb trees. |
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COMMUNICATION
North American
Porcupines can make a wide range of noises. They can whimper or
scream! Click here to listen to a porcupine. |
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INTERESTING FACTS
1. North American Porcupines may also gnaw human
wood structures, like used canoe paddles, for the salt in the wood.
2. Porcupine's are good swimmers (their quills
give them bouyancy) and agile climbers!!.
3. A North American Porcupine usually lives
five or six years in the wild, or ten years in captivity. They have
been know to have lived up to 18 years in the wild. |
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