Porcupine

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After a leisurely stroll across the road, this porcupine stops to check out the humans.

Contrary to popular belief, the porcupine does not shoot its quills. The quills are lightly attached and when they come in contact with skin or other objects, they easily detach and become embedded in the attacker. A baby porcupine comes complete with soft quills which within an hour after birth dry and harden to provide protection for the young rodent.

In July 2000, a neighbor caught a porcupine eating the insulation from under his RV. To induce said porcupine to leave his unhealthy lunch behind, the man availed himself of a short stick to persuade the porcupine to leave his property. The porcupine toddled off down the road seeming like he had not a care in the world. After following the porcupine for about 50 feet, the neighbor figured he'd chased him far enough and turned around to head home. After ten or fifteen feet, the man looked to his left and low and behold here was Mr. Porcupine following him back home. At this point, the neighbor decided a little heavier persuasion with the stick was needed to deter the porcupine from his edible endeavors. After applying the persuasive stick to the porcupine's rear extremities, the porcupine decided it was time to look for greener pastures. These greener pastures happened to be in our back yard. As you can see by the small photo to the right, no damage was done to the porcupine who was more than willing to follow us and have his photo taken.

That's a porcupine in the tree. The breeze swings him back and forth on the tiny branches reminding us of an old-fashioned metronome. Porcupines are very friendly and not frightened of humans. They eat the tender shoots of the spring leaves - probably pretty tasty after the long winter. These animals are mostly nocturnal so we're happy we were able to get some photos.

We saw two porcupines when we drove to Gagnon, Quebec, on May 21, 2005. One was not interested in what we were doing and continued on his journey. The second porcupine would stop as still as a statue often holding one paw in the air for several seconds when he heard the whirr of the digital camera. When he lost interest in us and the sound, he slowly ambled across the road and into the brush.