North American Porcupine, Desert USA
North American Porcupine
DesertUSA.com
The porcupine is a quill-bearing rodent (Order Rodentia) of the families Erethizontidae (New World) and Hystricidae (Old World). The North American Porcupine, best known of the New World species, is a heavyset, short-legged, slow-moving rodent that is usually solitary, nocturnal, herbivorous, and spends much of its time in trees.
The porcupine's barbed quills detach easily and can become painfully embedded in the skin of an attacker. Not only do they inflict painful wounds, but they also work into the skin and may even cause death if they puncture vital organs or if the wounds become infected. Porcupine quills embedded in an attacker's face may prevent the animal from feeding successfully, causing death from starvation.
Range
Throughout all the North American desert regions, and the entire west, north to Canada.
Habitat
Usually woods and woodlands.
Description
The North American Porcupine is the second largest of all rodents. It has a small head, a large, chunky body with a high arching back and short legs. Its head and body are 25 to 40 inches long, with a long, thick, muscular tail growing as long as 8 inches. It weighs from 10 to 40 pounds.
Long, yellowish guard hairs cover the front half of its body while up to 30,000 quills are interspersed among the dark, coarse guard hairs of the back and tail. These quills are the most distinguishing characteristic of the porcupine. The black-tipped, yellowish quills are stiff, barbed spines about 3 inches long that can become deadly once embedded in other animals' flesh.
The porcupine's feet have 4 toes on the forefeet and 5 on the hindfeet, all with long, curved claws and small textured knobby pads on the bottom. The long claws make depressions far ahead of the oval tracks, which are about 3 inches long and 5 to 6 inches apart.
Please visit the website for the rest of the article and to learn more
Votes:20
Comments: 0