Porcupine
Erethizan dorsatum
Written by Kathy Richards
Often called a quill pig since it has quills covering its entire body except the belly and bottom of the feet. It has about 30, 000 quills which are 3-4 inches long and extremely sensitive. The porcupine is a member of the rodent family.
Mattnad, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHABITAT:
They live in hardwood/conifer forests. Porcupines make their den in deep rocky cervices, a hollow log or tree, a cave, a hole under a stump or an abandoned fox den or dry beaver lodge.
BEHAVIOR:
Porcupines are active year round and are solitary except in the winter when they live communally. They are very good climbers but are slow walkers. Typically they will only travel 430 feet from the den. Quills are their prime defense but contrary to popular belief they can’t shoot the quills. However they can loosen them so they will come out when the come into contact with a predator.
FOOD:
Porcupines are herbivores. They chew on trees eating the bark and cambium of aspen, ash, hemlock, birch, beech, white pine, cherry, American chestnut, red oak and red maple. They will eat sugar maple seeds as well as roots, buds, young branches, catkins, grasses, sedges and yellow pond lily.
PREDATOR:
Lynx, fisher, bobcat, coyote, gray fox and owls.
Check out other animals in the exhibits nearby
Gray Fox
Fisher
Long Tailed Weasel