Met a “Thorn Pig”, otherwise known as a porcupine.

Meet the porcupine, or thorn pig!  Did you know the English word for them can be traced back  600 years?  They used to be known as porke despyne that came from porc espin (old French) which means spine hog.  They aren’t pigs, but large rodents.  

There are two families of porcupines. Old World which are found in Eurasia and Africa and the New World found in North and South  America.  Old World porcupines are terrestrial (living on land),  have longer quills, and are strictly nocturnal.  New World porcupines are not entirely nocturnal, some are terrestrial while others are arboreal (living in trees) using their prehensile tails for balance.  Porcupines of North America can grow to about 3 feet in length and weigh 30 pounds.   They live long lives!  Porcupines of North America can live for about 23 years while porcupines in South America can live to be about 27 years old.  Both live longer than the world’s largest rodent, the Capybara, which lives to be about 15.

Some porcupines have up to 30,000 quills.  These quills have barbed ends and are loosely attached which lets them detach quickly giving the porcupine time to escape while predators deal with the quills.  Porcupines cannot “throw” their quills like shooting an arrow, that is just a myth.  The hollow quills can be used as a first defense; they can just shake the quills which rattle and may scare off any predators before having to resort to charging the predator.  But they are not safe from every predator!  Many animals have learned to just flip porcupines onto their backs…predators like Great-horned Owls, martens, and bobcats.  Both families of porcupines are good swimmers.  Their quills are filled with air and give them buoyancy as they paddle through the water.  One surprising fact about their quills is that they contain natural antibiotic properties which inhibit gram-positive strains from growing.  This is good since porcupines sometimes stab themselves when they fall out of trees!

One thing is for sure…they don’t stick around long once spotted!