A lumbering porcupine leaves a unique trail as its stubby legs and stocky body plow through a recent snow at the McKeon Reserve to get from its den to some tasty hemlock trees.
Photo: Kevin McKeon
Porcupines: Our Mostly Prickly Neighbors
By Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist
Porcupines haven’t always lived in Maine – their ancestors migrated north from South America some 130,000 years ago – but you can hardly say they’re “from away.” These familiar, slow-moving creatures are second to the beaver as the largest rodents in North America. And they love our Maine woods.
At 15 to 25 pounds, the porcupine has a stocky body about 2½ feet long, a small face, short legs, and a thick 8-inch tail. They are the only North American mammals besides wolverines and skunks with noticeable black and white coloration to advertise their defensive abilities. Our porcupine (the name is from the old French for “thorn pig”) also has a patch of skin with specialized quills on its lower back called the rosette that increases the rodent’s already strong odor to deter enemies. To aid their tree-foraging lifestyle, strong, curved nails fit into bark crevices, and the soles of their feet have a pebbly texture and very little fur, increasing their hold on branches. Three layers of fur protect porcupines: A dark, heavy underfur; white-tipped guard hairs, and the quills – about 30,000 of them! Usually from 3 to 12 inches long, quills also serve as insulation.
A porcupine gives a face-to-face warning by quivering and rattling quills and clattering teeth. Next, it quickly turns to show its formidable defense; the flailing tail gives the impression that it’s throwing quills, but quills can’t be thrown. Specialized muscles loosen the quill-skin attachment and cause the quills to become erect, allowing easier release during defense. At the tip of each quill are hundreds of barbs that aid in attachment, keep it attached, and help it penetrate deeper. After a quill is used, another one grows in its place.
Porcupines live almost everywhere in North America, preferring natural shelters in rocky ledges, tree, log, and stump cavities, even old beaver lodges (porcupines are good swimmers). They’ll often return to a favorite spot yearly, sometimes “tagging” it by gnawing the bark away near an entrance. And they always leave profuse waste accumulation nearby. Females spend the night away from dens, foraging for about 10 hours. Males will sometimes spend days in a food-rich tree. Porcupines range from 18 to 160 acres, depending on food availability and snow cover. Being robust with short, stocky legs, wintertime travel results in wide snow-paths, well-marked with urine and scat.
Hemlock is their go-to tree for winter, offering cover from cold and plenty of cones, twigs, and bark to eat. “Nip twigs” can be found under porcupine-foraged trees, with the buds, cones, and tender hemlock leaves eaten. Hemlock contains low levels of nutrients but high fiber. Special enzymes help porcupines digest this fiber by fermentation. Because of this, about 26% of a porcupine’s body is its digestive tract. Summertime foods include sugar maple, basswood, aspen and beech saplings, acorns, and other plants. Oak nip twigs are found with the acorns eaten but the acorn caps still attached. Porcupines don’t eat meat but will chew on bones to both sharpen their teeth and obtain salt and calcium. They’re also known to eat bugs and small amphibians. They also consume nuts, tubers, seeds, grass – and apples.
Porcupines are the bane of orchardists, being avid consumers of all things apple: fruit, twigs, and bark. High in carbohydrates, apples help porcupines gain the extra weight necessary to help them survive through the winter months. But apples are relatively acidic, much more so than the rodent’s summertime food. High acid intake causes porcupines to lose sodium, so they look for some salt in aquatic plants, insects, animal bones and outer bark. They’re also attracted to plywood and the sweat-soaked handles of hoes, rakes, and shovels – as some of us gardeners have noticed! Residual road salt is another source and is the cause of many porcupine deaths from vehicles.
Springtime brings the birth of a single, 1½-pound, 8- to 10-inch long porcupette within its protective birth sac, with eyes open, fully alert, and soft quills that harden within hours. The family is called a prickle. Two weeks later, the baby is eating vegetation, and after about three months, it becomes independent. While the mother forages, the porcupette stays hidden in a crevice or at the base of a tree. If threatened, it instinctively tucks its head down and turns its back to the predator, vigorously flicking its tiny, two-inch tail.
Predators of porcupine include bear, bobcat, coyote, and great horned owl. The fisher’s agility allows it to kill by repeatedly attacking a porcupine’s head; it can do this on ground as well as in trees, making this weasel a most deadly threat. If they can evade predators and orchardists, porcupines can live 18 years.
Quill photo: https://www.science.org/content/article/porcupine-quills-reveal-their-prickly-secrets
Editor’s note: Did you see something unusual last time you were out in the woods? Were you puzzled or surprised by something you saw? Ask our “Out in the Woods” columnist Kevin McKeon. He’ll be happy to investigate and try to answer your questions. Email him directly at: kpm@metrocast.net
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