The Porcupine

The North American Porcupine has a small head, chunky body with a high arching back, and short legs. It is 25 - 40 inches long (0.6 - 1 meters), with a thick, long, muscular tail. It weighs from 10 - 40 pounds (4.5 - 18 kilograms). The porcupine has long, yellowish guard hairs on the front half of its body and up to 30,000 quills mixed among the guard hairs of its back and tail. The Porcupine's barbed quills detach easily and can become painfully embedded in the skin of an attacker. The porcupine is a nocturnal (comes out at night) herbivore (plant eater). It spends much of its time in trees. It is usually solitary and rests by day in hollow trees and logs, crevices in rocks or underground burrows.

In the Spring porcupines feed on leaves, twigs and green plants. In Winter, they chew through the outer bark of fir, hemlock, aspen and pine trees to eat the tender layer below. Sometimes, they will completely girdle (chew the bark off all the way around) which kills the tree. They have been known to gnaw used ax handles, canoe paddles and other things for the salt and oil they contain. The two large, front teeth continue to grow as long as the Porcupine lives.

When threatened, the porcupine places his snout (nose) between his forelegs and turns its back to the enemy. If attacked the porcupine hits its tail against the assailant and dozens of quills come off and stick in the attacker. If hit in the face, a predator such as the Wolf, Bobcat or Mountain Lion may die of starvation because they can not remove the quills and the injury prevents them from eating.

Porcupines breed in the Fall or early Winter. Males who are looking for a mate make a high pitched squeak, while females reply by squalling. When the two come together, they do a lot of nose rubbing.
One or two babies are born with soft quills and their eyes open about 10 days later. The baby porcupines quills harden within the hour after they are born and they begin eating solid food after two weeks. They continue to nurse for 4 or 5 months. Porcupines in the wild live for about 5 to 6 years.