More to porcupines than quills

A walking pin-cushion. That’s usually what comes to mind when people think about porcupines. Even the word porcupine means “quill pig.” But there is so much more to learn about porcupines than their quills; their behavior and natural history is just as fascinating. For example, did you know that there are two main types of porcupines: old world porcupines, which are found throughout Africa, Europe and Asia, and new world porcupines, which live in both North and South America. Despite both being porcupines, they are unrelated to each other.

There are several different species of new world porcupines, but we will focus on our local North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum). Despite their name, they are not native to our continent. Their ancient ancestors arrived in Brazil from west Africa by floating on mats of vegetation that littered the Atlantic Ocean after catastrophic storms and flooding. From Brazil, porcupines made their way up the Isthmus of Panama (along with armadillos, glyptodonts, ground sloths and opossums) and finally arrived in North America. Today, North American porcupines regularly make their home in the coniferous and mixed forests of the northeastern and northwestern United States, northern Mexico and Canada.

Porcupines are rodents, just like mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters and beavers. All rodents have very large teeth called incisors that grow at the front of the mouth and are used for gnawing. In fact, they gnaw so much that their teeth are designed to keep growing for the entirety of the animal’s life.

Porcupines are the second largest of North America’s rodents (right behind beavers). They measure 2 or 3 feet in length and tip the scales at 20 pounds.

Of course, we can’t talk about porcupines without talking about their infamous quills! Porcupine quills are actually hair that are modified to grow pointy and sharp. There can be more than 30,000 quills on one porcupine, and they measure 2-3 inches long.

When unable to flee a predator, porcupines flush out their quills to make themselves look bigger and scarier than they really are. If that doesn’t work, predators usually end up with a face-full of quills while the porcupine makes its escape.

To make the birthing process easier for mother porcupines, baby porcupines are born with very soft quills that don’t harden until after a few days have passed. Despite what we’ve been led to believe, porcupines do not shoot their quills. However, their quills keep most predators at bay.

Porcupines make use of their free time scrounging for food. Exactly what they are eating depends on the season. This winter, they’ll be munching on inner tree bark (that’s when those incisors come in handy!) and pine needles. Sometimes, this action can result in completely cutting down the tree. On the other hand, vegetation in the form of stems, roots, berries, grass, leaves and roots make up their diet during the spring and summer months.

Porcupines can live up to 18 years in the wild. When you remember that house mice typically live for 12-18 months, and hamsters live two to three years, that’s a very long time for a rodent!

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Christian Ryan can be reached at animaladventures1314@gmail.com.