The prickly facts about porcupines

By Al Lowe
Contributor

The porcupine is almost unique. It is a very large rodent, but its peculiarity is that it protects itself with barbed quills.
Just about all of the animals body is covered with these quills. There are none on its underbelly or inner legs. The quills are hollow, and the end of each quill is covered with tiny backward facing barbs, like those on a fish-hook. If they become embedded in the skin of an animal (or person) they tend to work their way in. Muscle movement will force the quill in further.
The barbs also swell when damp, and this makes them tend to move inward as well. A lot of people think that porcupines can throw their quills, but that is just not so. The inquisitive dog or fox who sniffs too close will get a lightning slap from the porcupine’s tail. He will get a face full of those terrible quills.
As any forester knows, the main food of these animals is vegetation. In summer, they eat grasses, clovers, trees buds, and even water lilies. In the winter, they are reduced to eating bark, chiefly of young trees. They will girdle young trees, which kills them. They will also eat the ‘leaders’, which makes multi-stemmed trees, which annoys loggers and foresters. Their favorites are white pine, white and red spruce, and hemlock.
Cottagers may also become familiar with porcupines. They will eat anything which has been handled by man - especially by sweaty hands. Door frames, axes handles, canoe paddles are all fair game.
It is said that they do this because of a craving for salt. This is the animal’s undoing, because when they become so numerous as to be a menace to forestry, they are easily killed by mixing the poison with salt.
The porcupine doesn’t have very many enemies, but it does have some. There are a few predators who have found the trick of flipping the porcupine over on his back, exposing the unprotected, soft belly. The Wolverine and the Bobcat can do this. But the best predator on porcupines is the Fisher. Fishers have been re-introduced into some eastern forests where the population of porcupines has become too high.
Porcupines do not hibernate. They forage and feed all winter long, often making tunnels through the snow from a snug den to a grove of young pines. The meat of porcupines is apparently very good. Because they are so slow and cumbersome, they make a good source of food for someone lost in the woods. There are lots of Indians, trappers, and a few Mounties who owe their lives to this slow-witted, blundering animal.
The Porcupine, Erithizon dorsatum, has some features which are certainly not found on many other mammals in the world.