![]() ![]() At night, the porcupine will collect bones to chew on for their teeth and to get calcium. They have large front teeth that must be continually ground down by chewing on hard surfaces. Their diet consists of mostly plants and roots, but they may also eat insects and small vertebrae. Crested porcupines live on the ground in the grasslands, forests and rocky outcrops of Africa. As the porcupettes grow, they begin to forage for food while still nursing milk from the mother. Their quills will begin to harden at about 2 weeks of age. When they are born, porcupettes' eyes are open, their front teeth are developed, and their quills are soft. Instead, they are sharp at one end, have microscopic ridges along the shaft, and are almost completely hollow.īaby African crested porcupine are well-developed at birth. Unlike the porcupines in North America, the crested porcupines' quills are not barbed. It is not painful for a crested porcupine to lose their quills, often they will shed and regrow like human hair. When the quills make contact, they are easily released from the porcupine’s skin and then eventually grow back. If a threat continues to advance towards a porcupine they will turn and back towards it, thrusting their quills. Some of the tail quills can be shaken against each other, making a rattling noise to help warn off predators. When they are feeling disturbed, they will flare their frontmost quills up and stomp their feet. Crested porcupines do not throw their quills. The quills are a variety of lengths with the longest growing almost 1 foot in length. They are almost entirely covered with bristle-like guard hair, in addition to having quills from the head to their tail. ![]() Porcupines have salt cravings that lead them to chew on anything made of plywood or with salt residue, such as housing structures and automobiles.Adult African Crested Porcupines can weigh up to 60 pounds, and can grow to 3 feet in length excluding their tail.Its Central and South American relatives can’t withstand the high variance in temperature tolerated by North American porcupines. Only the North American porcupines has adapted to the cold.Even though North American porcupines are solitary animals, they sometimes share dens in the winter with up to eight other porcupines. They make dens in caves, decaying logs and hollow trees.Porcupines are the second largest rodent in North America, with beavers as number one.The porcupine’s latin name, Erethizon dorsatum means “quill pig.”.The baby stays with its mother for about six months, but will start foraging for food only a couple of days after birth. After mating, and a gestation period of seven months, the female gives birth to a single baby. Male porcupines perform dances and spray urine over females’ heads. Mating occurs in late summer and early fall, and starts with a mating ritual. Fishers are especially equipped to prey upon porcupines, and will attack from the front until they are able to flip a porcupine on its back and attack the porcupine’s unprotected stomach. Their quills come off easily when touched, and their sharp tips and overlapping scales or barbs that make them difficult to remove.Įven so, porcupines are preyed upon by co-adapted predators including lynx, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, wolverines, great horned owls, mountain lions and fishers. If the predator is hit, the quills can embed themselves in the animal because the body heat of the predators body causes the barbs to expand. Although porcupines cannot shoot their quills, they can aim their body movements for vital places on the predator’s body. If the threat continues, the porcupine will turn its back, raise its quills and lash with its tail. Once threatened, porcupines will chatter their teeth and produce a chemical odor to warn off predators. The porcupine is not an aggressive animal and will only attack if it is threatened. Porcupines climb trees or forage on the ground for food. The porcupine is a herbivore that eats leaves, twigs, bark and green plants like skunk cabbage and clover. The average body and head length is 25 to 36 inches and the average tail length is 8 to 10 inches. Porcupines have strong, short legs and their feet have hairless soles to help it climb trees. The hollow quills allow porcupines to stay afloat in water.īaby porcupines have soft quills that begin hardening about an hour after birth. Quills are hairs with solid, barbed tips and hollow shafts, and a porcupine has an estimated 30,000. The North American porcupine is a rodent with black to brownish-yellow fur and quills all over its round body, except for its stomach. It can be found throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The North American porcupine is a large rodent that uses its quills for defense.
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