North American porcupine

Language English

Onglets

Description

Distinguishing features

The American porcupine is quite a stocky animal. It’s the world’s third biggest rodent after the capybara and the beaver. The porcupine’s coat is soft.

In the eastern part of their habitat, these porcupines have black pelts, whereas they are blondish brown further west. A porcupine's fur is made up of ground hair and guard hair.

Some 30,000 stiff quills cover its head, neck, rump and tail. It has long, curved claws.

Reproduction

During the rutting season (October to December), the male and female spend about one week together. When the female is ready to mate, she ”dances” with the male. They both rear up on their hind legs, belly to belly, giving a variety of squeaks, groans and grunts.

With such quills, how do they mate? In fact, it seems that the female flattens her quills and raises her tail so as not to hurt the male.

The female may mate with several partners. She bears one litter per year, with one or two young per litter. Gestation lasts about seven months.

At birth, the baby looks like a hairball and can start to move. After only a few days, the soft needles become rigid. The young (born in spring) stay with the mother until fall.

Although baby porcupines are weaned at about six or seven weeks, they start eating plants at two weeks. Porcupines reach sexual maturity at two to three years.

Diet

In the summer the porcupine eats the leaves and buds of the aspen, the white birch and the willow. It also consumes aquatic plants (water lilies and arrowheads). Its menu moreover includes terrestrial plants (herbaceous, grasses, raspberry bushes) and nuts (acorns and beechnuts). Occasionally it raids gardens or devastates corn fields

In the winter it feeds on the sapwood (the tender part under the inner bark) of conifers (spruce, pine, larch) and deciduous trees (maple).

Always in search of salt, the porcupine likes to nibble on antlers and bones found on the ground. Because they are fond of salt, they may eat items that have been in contact with human sweat or urine, such as paddles, tool handles and shoes.

Predators

Their main enemies are fishers, although they may occasionally be attacked by bobcats, lynx, pumas, wolverines, coyotes and red foxes and Black bears. These animals have discovered that the porcupine has no quills on its belly. With the swat of a paw they flip it over on its back and attack the underside. Eagles and the great horned owl also prey on it.

Many porcupines are also crushed by cars.

A porcupine that climbs a tree can slip, fall, injure itself with its own needles and even die!

Habitat

The North American porcupine lives in mixed forests containing deciduous and coniferous trees, especially those with open canopies. In fact, the vegetation on the ground created by the sunlight makes it safe in its terrestrial movements.

This animal lives in mixed forests, underbrush and scrubby areas. A place will be favourable to him if there is a source of summer food and a source of winter food nearby.

It is found throughout most of North America, from northern Canada to Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. There are no American porcupines in the southeastern United States.

They make use of natural shelters, including hollow tree trunks, overturned logs, the space under a pile of rocks and caves. Their shelters can be detected by their scat and the odour of their urine.

Ecology, behaviour

The porcupine is a solitary animal in the summer but during the winter several individuals may gather together. It does not hibernate but, during the coldest winter months, it reduces its activity and spends a lot of time in its burrow.

Their quills, which are hollow, help make them buoyant in the water, so that they can reach aquatic plants.

The feeding habits of the North American porcupine are detrimental to trees, as it removes large sections of bark and consumes the terminal shoots. Unfortunately, this reduces their chances of survival because, over time, these wounds promote the death of the trees.

Porcupines have a keen sense of hearing and smell. They are largely nocturnal.

They can often be seen along roadsides, particularly where salt has been spread.

French name

Porc-épic d'Amérique

Scientific name

Erethizon dorsatus

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodents

Family

Erethizontidae

Size

Total length: 80 to 115 cm Tail length: 20 to 25 cm

Weight

From 5 to 16 kg

Life span

In the wild: 7 to 10 years In captivity: 15 years.

Status

Least concern (IUCN 2016) Common species

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