# 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.

- **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.

## About

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...

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/123f8d5c-7751-4e2f-88b6-85f3e1450dc3
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/44026
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erethizon dorsatum
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/325341307/medium.jpg (Alan Rockefeller, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.