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Porcupines carry famous weaponry but by nature they’d rather retreat

Northwoods Notebook

A PORCUPINE shows its summer coat while scouting amidst dandelions in northern Dickinson County. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

In my opinion, the Northwoods may not have a more signature animal than the porcupine.

Among the 12 New World porcupines only the North American is capable of surviving in northern climes; the others dwell in Central and South America, which is where New World porcupines originated before crossing into North America when the Isthmus of Panama formed about 2.7 million years ago, according to online sources. (The only other North American species still around today that made the same South-North switch are opossums — the continent’s lone marsupial — and armadillos.)

Indeed, even when considering the distantly related Old World porcupines of southern Europe, Asia and Africa, the North American stands alone in being cold-tolerant, adapting over time to withstand harsh winter conditions even as far north as the tundras of Alaska and Canada.

While porcupines can be found in desert chaparral and even some grasslands as well, it definitely favors the forests, which makes sense since trees offer forage and protection from most predators. In Wisconsin, their range extends south roughly to where woodlands give way to farmland.

It is North America’s second-largest rodent, behind only the American beaver in size — roughly 2 to 3 feet in length and weighing in at about 20 pounds, with males being bigger than females.

Being a rodent makes the porcupine remotely related to rats, mice, even rabbits and hares.

Yet its lifestyle is far different from those quick-scurrying mammals. Porcupines move slowly, especially on the ground. Quills mean the porcupine doesn’t need the usual rapid flight response.

But the porcupine is not by nature a fighter, either. When confronted, it will look to retreat if it can, ideally up a tree, said Brian Roell, a wildlife biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

If unable to escape, it will clatter its teeth, then emit a foul scent to warn off the threat. The quills, too, have distinct white and black bands as a sign of danger to even colorblind predators, according to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology’s Animal Diversity Web site, https://animaldiversity.org.

Only when all other options fail does the porcupine finally bring its famous weaponry into the fight.

“They don’t want to lose those quills, so that’s kind of their last defense,” Roell said.

Such a prickly exterior is in contrast to the actual low-key nature of the porcupine, said Roell, who admitted finding them “kind of neat to watch” as they feed high in trees.

“I consider them to be a really docile animal, unless provoked,” Roell said.

Porcupines have some other significant differences from other rodents. They’re long-lived, up to 18 years in the wild, according to the Animal Diversity Web site. But they reproduce slowly, only bearing a single “porcupette,” rarely twins.

They mate in October and November in what Roell termed an “elaborate” courtship ritual. They have a long gestational period for a rodent as well, not delivering the “porcupette” until April or May. The baby is born with soft quills that harden after birth.

Young are on their own by late fall; unlike many other species, like wolves and deer, among porcupines it’s the juvenile females that “disperse” to find a territory of their own. According to the ADW site males tend to hold territories for three years, so their daughters can’t stick around to run the risk of inbreeding. Young males, however, won’t reach sexual maturity or dominant status fast enough to potentially mate with their mothers.

Porcupines are solitary most of their lives, establishing territories that have one male’s area overlapping several females. But they will den together in winter.

The porcupine’s taste for tree underbark and tender twigs and buds has given it a reputation as harmful to the forest, though Roell considers that to be overblown. Snowshoe hares are more likely to fatally gird trees than porcupines, which are expert climbers that prefer to feed higher up where they are less vulnerable to predators, he said.

“They’re not out there causing widespread forest damage,” Roell said.

Porcupines can be a nuisance animal, however, due to their salt craving. They’ve been known to chew on homes, automobiles and even wooden tool handles that might have salt traces from sweat. It also will draw them to roadsides, which is why porcupines can be among the most common roadkill in the region.

Any problem porcupine can likely be easily live-trapped — he’s had success with apple slices coated in salt — and relocated away from residential areas, Roell said.

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