They are actually very docile animals that will not attack passersby, but rather lumber away slowly to a comfortable distance then resume whatever it was they were doing. While many predators are capable of eating them, porcupines are a fairly risky food item and most predators leave them alone except in times of desperation. Fisher cats, however, excel at preying upon porcupines and may even suppress porcupine populations in some places.
Indeed, many people who have never seen a live porcupine are accustomed to seeing their carcasses along roads. Young porcupine found resting in the canopy of a tree in winter. Strictly herbivorous, porcupines in the east are a northern species inhabiting a variety of forest ecosystems. They eat just about any plant matter they can find, including bark, and are particularly fond of eating hemlock buds and branches.
Their winter food supply is of little nutritional value, however, and while they might eat a pound of food every day all winter, porcupines lose almost a third of their weight by spring. Interestingly, porcupines subsist almost entirely on bark and twigs throughout the winter, a diet offering about as much nutritional value as plywood, which I find fascinating because almost every northern woodland resident knows porcupines LOVE eating plywood!
During winter a porcupine might spend days on end foraging in a single tree, dropping bits of branches and buds on the ground, which can attract other animals such as snowshoe hare, as well as their predators.
Now, I am worried about my car, my cats, and myself. What to do….. I had those distinctive chew marks at all around the support logs on the porch of our home in MT a couple of summers ago.
I had no idea what that was from…neither did anyone else! There was no front or back that I could tell! It ended up in a corner…apparently it was a large porcupine. Great Article Matt! Hiking in Mt. Rainier National Park, we noticed a deposit of quills at the edge of a platform toilet comes with a view. Does a porcupine leave quills as a down payment on such a fine piece of property?
There were no visible chew marks — yet. Would love to find a method short of shooting them to stop the destruction of my dwarf pear trees. They break all the branches when climbing to get to the fruit. Have tried all kinds of methods but the lowest branches are too close to the ground for metal trunk wrap to work. Might have to resort to elimination via bullet.
Ah, finally a nice article about my favorite critter. Porcupine numbers appear to be declining just about everywhere. Im a big foot believer but yes that show is ridiculous; anyway lots of creatures gnaw on bones its part of the forest cycle. But my interest was, would they shred pine cones and leave a pile of seeds almost as if they sucked on the inside like we would on a ear of corn after devouring the kernels?
I used to see porcupines regularly in my rural area of Washington state, and my dog had an occasional encounter. The critters are nearly extinct in Southwestern Oregon. Great article. Despite Pine-sol, Havoc, wasp spray and thumbtacks, a porcupine continues to wake me from my sleep gnawing on the deck bolsters.
Thanks for this informative post. They also like pack straps, as a friend found, to her dismay, on a backpacking trip, and boots preferably not on your feet. I have an injured porcupine living on my property and the only thing it will eat is the leaves of cedar trees.
We have a porcupine that visits every day; he is fantastic. One has to be sensible. I even can pet him without a glove. People are sick to demonize animals so much. I absolutely feel that when you drive your car that is far, far worse than any porcupine that waddles by.
No porcupine is ever going to attack your face. Your car, on the other hand, could. I live pretty much in the woods. I have a beautiful Kentucky Bluegrass lawn in the front with lots of yews and flowering plants.
I also have a porcupine that lives under my shed. Poor thing must be years old; partially bald and missing most of its quills, it wanders around my yard only eating my lawn. I feel really bad for the poor guy. Sometimes I just stand there and let him graze. If he gets too close to other fauna, I shoo him away with a broom. My back yard is 20 feet of weeds, grass, and creeping ground cover, separating my home from forest. Would salt licks strategically placed in the back of the back yard attract the little guy?
I wonder what else he'd like… maybe some small evergreen trees? We take lettuce that's going off and feed it to the geese! Spinach too! What did you end up doing? Have you ever heard of porcupines chewing pex waterline piping under camps in the Adirondacks?
Six lines have been chewed and so much porcupine poop that its mountains high. Also they have chewed the electrical lines. How do we get rid of them? Yes, they will chew piping and can do various damage to cabins. Chapter 2 My visiting porcupine: I decided that it would be safer for my kitty if Porky were not around.
While Porky was out and about, I placed a few bowls of ammonia at his entry point under my shed. Sure enough, he was gone the next day. So was my cat. She usually came home before dusk, but that night she was a no-show. I went looking for her and about yards down the road, I discovered her lying down within 20 feet of Porky.
The following day, kitty was sitting on the bottom step of the deck and Porky appeared from around the corner. He passes with 2 inches and neither flinched. I guess I have a permanent guest. My only worry was harm to either of them, but I think I can rest easy. This is wonderful. Large Aspen Tortrix. Larger Boxelder Leafroller. Linden Looper. Mountain Pine Beetle. Pine Webworm. Pitch Moth. Porcupine Damage.
Satin Moth. Spruce Beetle. Spruce Spider Mite. Uglynest Caterpillar. Ungulate Damage. Western Gall Rust. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Yellowheaded Spruce Sawfly. Fall Needle Drop. White Pine Weevil. Stay Informed. Online services.
0コメント