Porcupine Burrow
Porcupines can build burrows up to 13 meters long with several side tubes. Their burrows provide them protection from weather and predators. Porcupines are usually solitary animals, but they will sometimes burrow with others during the winter to survive. During the winter, it is rare for a porcupine to move more than 100 meters (about the length of a football field) from its den. In summer, they may look for food up to a mile and a half away.
What does a porcupine eat?
Porcupines used their nose to search for food rather than their eyes. They most often eat soft bark from the inside of a tree. In the winter, they eat bark and needles from pines. In the spring, they eat maple bark, poplar leaves, willow leaves, herbs, shrubs, beech tree nuts, dandelions, and more.
Porcupine Fun Facts
- Porcupines do not hibernate! During the winter they stay within one-hundred (100) meters of their burrow to eat and drink. They will stay in their burrow when it is raining or snowing. If they get caught in bad weather, they may wait the storm out in a tree.
- Porcupines are solitary animals meaning they prefer to live alone.
- Mating season is in the summer and early fall. The mother will be pregnant for seven months before giving birth to a single baby. The baby will begin foraging for food just days after it is born, but will remain with its mother for about six (6) months.
- Porcupines are not naturally aggressive, but they will attack if they feel threatened. The porcupine will warn its predator it is about to attack by clicking its teeth and releasing a scent from a scent gland. If the predator continues to attack, the porcupine will turn around and prepare to attack. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines do not shoot their quills. Instead, they aim for a part of the predators body they would like to hit and the force embeds their quills in the predator.
- Indigenous peoples of North America use dyed porcupine quills in artwork. In the past, they ate a lot of porcupine meat in the winter.
- The average porcupine has 30,000 quills.
- The word porcupine means “thorn pig”
QR content provided courtesy of A.J. Read Science Discovery Center. Emmons Bog Pond is managed by The Nature Conservancy. Learn more at nature.org