In spring I have watched porcupines climbing clumsily in tall willow brush feeding on the swollen buds. Swaying on a limb he reaches for a slender branch, pulls it to him and passes the length of it past his nose to discover the buds which he nips off. If the branch is obstreperous and cannot readily be handled in this manner, he severs it with his rodent incisors and then removes the buds as his paws manipulate the twig past his jaws. The new shoots of fireweed and other herbs are avidly sought in early summer. Willow leaves are included in the varied summer diet.
The breeding season is in the fall and the young are born about 7 months later. The usual single young one weighs about a pound, almost as much as a new born grizzly. The eyes are open, the short spines are evident, and protective reactions are soon functioning.
Their voice development is quite obvious when one or more porcupines resides under a cabin. The night moanings, squeaks of irritability, cluckings, and caressing sounds are enough to keep even the exhausted hiker awake.
Porcupine.
Beaver.
Beaver
Castor canadensis
Beavers may be found at Horseshoe Lake, Riley Creek, various ponds near the Nenana River, and in ponds and creeks along the road in the Wonder Lake region. They are out chiefly at night, but many families emerge for pond activity by 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
Beavers are large rodents, scaling 60 pounds or more. Their weight does not make them good hikers but it is no handicap in water where they paddle their way about as though they were skiffs. And when they sit up to gnaw down an aspen or cottonwood, a favorite pastime, a good solid fulcrum might be a comfortable advantage. The broad, flat, scaly tail serves as a prop when sitting erect, as a rudder when swimming, and for sounding an alarm (by slapping water) when an enemy is discovered.