The Porcupine

I did not steal this picture, i got it here

CHARACTERISTICS: Porcupines are rodents. It has black to brownish fur and strong, short legs. It has a round body, small ears and a small head. A porcupine has as many as 30,000 quills. They have quills everywhere on their body except for their stomach. The shortest quills are on their cheeks. Their longest quills are on their back side. They use the quills to defend themselves against predators. With the quills, predetors with be poked, and the quills will sink into the enemy's skin. Their quills are as sharp as a needle. 

 The porcupine uses its quills for defence. It can not shoot its quills. For defence, the porcupine turns around and makes his back face the predator. Then its quills stick the predator. Then the quills become embedded in the animal. Body heat makes the barbs bigger and they become even more deeply embedded in the animal's skin. My advice to anyone if they see a porcupine is to back off. :)

You are probably not going to believe me when I say that porcupines actually have very soft hair. If they had no quills (prickly things that they use to defend themselves) then, they would have hair as soft as human. 

  The cool thing about the porcipines quills, is that they only spike out when it is needed. So if you show the porcipine that you are harmless, then it will be safe to hold it. But, i would not reccomend holding a porcipine from the wild, because it might have some wild desiese. 

DIET: The porcupine is a herbivore. It eats leaves, twigs, and any green plants. in the winter, they eat bark. It climbs trees to find food most of the time. It is mostly nocturnal. but sometimes it goes to get something to eat during the day. Which at sometimes, depending on the habitat of the porcupine, going out in the middle of the day is very dangerous, but usually animals that will like to have a porcupine for dinner, will be very challenged because the quills will protect the porcupine from getting attacked from a larger animal.

 LIFE CYCLE: They mate in early fall and late summer. They like to make a lot of sounds when they are mating. The males usually fight over the females. The male does an elaborate dance and sprays urine over the head of the female. After seven months a single baby porcupine is born. When the baby is born, the quills are soft. They harden about an hour after birth. the baby will stay with its mother for six months. After the six months are up, the porcupine is fully grown and ready to live on it's own in the wilderness. 

BEHAVIOR: The porcupine is usually solitary. But the male porcupines often fight in the winter. It makes its home in caves, decaying logs, and hallow trees. the porcupine does not hibernate, but they will stay in its home when there is bad weather. They are very good swimmers. It is also an excellent tree climber. With these skills, it is easier to survive in the wild. Other than that, porcupines are very shy when it comes to humans. The only real time when they attack is if they are being attacked or if a human trys to pick them up, or try to physically abuse them.

RANGE:The porcupine can be found in most of Canada and the western United States south to Mexico. It can be found in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and New England in the eastern United States. Porcupines can range from living pretty much anywhere, but these are just some examples of where they are most likely to be seen and where the greatest population of them are.

Habitat: The porcupine lives in forests. It can be found in scrubby areas in the west. Porcupines are very adaptable, and can really live anywhere that is easiest for them. So, they prefere to live in forests, but they are capable to live in open taundra's, deserts, or ragelands. Basicly, the porcupines are very flexible about where they live.

 Random Facts: porcupines are actually attracted to salt. They will be attracted to icy roads that have been salted down so that the ice will melt. As odd as this may sound, the porcupines will actually begin to lick tires on cars because they touched the salt of the road. In some areas where they are known to be porcupines, people will put salt licking areas so that the animals will not have to get injured when they want to lick the road or the wheels of a car. Superisingly, there are over two dozen different species of porcupines. When the porcupines are first born, there quills are very soft, and they do not harden within a few days.

i did not steal this picture, i got it from here 

This porcupine is very tiny and it is a baby. These are quite harmless. 

i did not steal this picture, i got it from here.

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/terranmarine101/Gen%5bM%5day/porcupine.jpg

http://www.nhptv.org/NatureWorks/porcupine.htm

http://besidethestream.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/babies.jpg

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=porcupines&gbv=2