Porcupine Myths and Facts

Got a call last week from a nice woman asking me to help identify a snake. Snake ID phone calls are one of the most common we get. I think I helped her realize she likely had a Northern Water Snake in her yard. It seemed like if she wasn't a snake lover, she was at least a snake-appreciator. I like that.

The interesting part of the conversation though was the end, when she asked me an "aside" question about porcupines. She indicated that a forester she had dealings with recently told her there aren't any porcupines North of the Chemung River because they weren't able to cross the water! She wondered if I knew anything about that. Now, my first instinct was to laugh. Not very nice, I know, but I hear myths like that all the time. I know porcupines are North of the Chemung because I have seen them crossing the road here, but I wanted to look up their official range. It appears they are everywhere in New York State. Looking up where they are found also gave me an opportunity to find out some more natural history. Probably one of the most interesting things I found was that porcupines have been around for a long time. They have found porcupine fossils from the Oligocene Epoch, which dates from 33.7 to 23.6 million years ago. This time period was marked by cooling on Earth and land mammal groups doing pretty well, including the porcupines.

Porcupines are mammals, members of the Rodent family, and can weigh up to 30 pounds! Their famous quills are modified hairs (they have around 30,000 of them) they use for protection. Another myth surrounding porcupines involves the use of these quills; they can raise them up when they feel threatened, but they cannot shoot them at a predator. A predator can become impaled if they come in contact with the porcupine, because the quills can dislodge, but there is no active shooting going on. Good thing porcupines have quills though; they are near-sighted, slow and pretty clumsy- they would be good prey for a lot of predators without those prickly hairs. They are chiefly nocturnal and prefer to spend their time in trees; likley partially because they are strict herbivores and like to munch on tree bark. But even though they are often hidden and most active at night, you might get a chance to see them in the winter months alongside the roads because they have a particular liking for salt. Make sure you look out for them everywhere in Chemung and the surrounding counties.

So thanks again to a phone call, porcupines join muskrats in having my admiration.