PORCUPINE (Erethizon dorsatum epixanthum)
Large, spiny rodent with high arched back, small black head, blunt nose, and heavy, short tail. Spines yellowish-white tipped with dark brown. Movements clumsy; slow, waddling gait. Total length up to 3 feet.
Common in the montane and subalpine forests of the region, the “quill pig” has been able to thrive because his potential predators can seldom discover that the only way to kill him, is to flip him over on his back and rip open his belly. Many interested animals, however, come away from a porky contact with a face or skin full of painful quills. Porcupine protect themselves by quick erection of masses of quills and by swift defensive swings of the spiny tail. These quills number up to 35,000 on a single animal. They spend most of their time clinging high in the tree branches, feeding on the green foliage and the inner bark of pine trees. This accounts for the yellow “bare” patches sometimes seen on tree trunks. However, they have a strong predilection for anything containing even a fraction of salt; they will eat boots, axe handles, gun stocks, outhouse wood, and parts of buildings—anything where human perspiration has left a salty deposit. Porcupines, as well as smaller rodents, devour many elk and deer antlers left in the woods. They have a strange assortment of guttural sounds and cries which are sometimes heard at night. These uncanny noises emitting from the dark create interesting possibilities for more imaginative minds. The highly controversial question of porcupine mating is solved when we understand that the female has the muscular power of pulling in her quills closely to the body contour, permitting normal mating procedure. The single young is born in well-developed condition, but still enclosed in a membranous sack.