North American Porcupine
Erethizon dorsatum
Porcupine quills have a microscopic layer of natural antibiotics, which helps prevent infections if a porcupine accidentally pricks itself during a fall from a tree.
- Scientific name
- Erethizon dorsatum
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Mammalia › Rodentia › Erethizontidae › Erethizon
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests, as well as wooden drawswales and tundra edges.
- Diet
- Herbivorous, feeding on tree bark, cambium, needles, leaves, and spring buds.
- Range
- United States, Canada, Northern Mexico
- Size
- Length: 60-90 cm (24-36 in); Weight: 5-14 kg (11-30 lbs)
- Lifespan
- 10 to 15 years in the wild
- Active
- nocturnal
- Threats
- Vehicle collisions, habitat loss, and localized poisoning or hunting by landowners who view them as pests.
- Safe to approach?
- Defensive but non-aggressive. They cannot shoot quills, but will swing their tail if cornered. Keep a safe distance of at least 10 feet and keep dogs on a leash. If quilled, do not cut the quills; pull them straight out firmly with pliers, or seek immediate medical or veterinary assistance to prevent the barbed tips from migrating deeper.
The North American porcupine ( Erethizon dorsatum ), also known as the Canadian porcupine or common porcupine , is a large rodent in the New World porcupine family. The beaver is the only rodent in North America that is larger than the North American porcupine. The porcupine is a caviomorph rodent whose ancestors rafted across the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil over 30 million years ago, and then migrated to North America during the Great American Interchange after the...
Photo: Alan Rockefeller, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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