Porcupines belong to two separate families of the Hystricomorph suborder of rodents. One family, the Erethizontidae, lives in the New World (North and South America).
The other family, the Hystricidae, lives in the Old World (Eurasia and Africa). Porcupines are found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Adults are around 30 inches long, including a 6 to 10 inch tail.
The porcupine characterizes North America as strongly as do the bison and the wild turkey. When hunched up in the tree, the animal may look like a dark knot on a branch.
When threatened, it presents a bristling back of white quill bases. The porcupine is the only North America mammal with body hairs modified as quills. Adult quills typically range between 2 and 10 cm in length.
Porcupines vary in color from brownish black to pure black, sprinkles on the sides and belly with yellow or white-tipped hairs.
Healthy porcupine cm live for 10 years or more, subsisting primarily on the bark, leaves, and new buds of sugar maples, beeches, cedars, aspens and birches.
From the late summer through fall, it forages for apples, acorns, alfalfa, dandelions and seeds.
Porcupine family
