Porcupines what do they eat

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.

Do porcupines eat human food like rice, beans, yam etc? Must their food be salty? This was absolutely Hilarious AND informative. That a discussion with 36 wonderful remarks on this subject , is this popular makes it even more impressive. They also climb up street sign poles and eat the entire metal street sign right down to the center bolts. I am reaching out from northwestern Ontario. You are obviously a porcupine expert and I am wondering what a porcupine feces or toilet area looks like, any idea on that one?

Hi Vern, Porcupine scat can be variable, but it often looks like pellets — think thicker, more elongated deer scat. I have found porcupine toilets that have a pile of pellets that have lots of pine needles in them. Many were even green pellets. I have seen other porcupine pellets with lots of woody material in it. It is in a large pile, as porcupines often stay in a tree for a while.

Hope this helps. That was really funny and very intelligently presented! Recently my neighbor has had a young porcupine eat off all the foliage on her huge cedar tree. Could it be starving and need more food.? What else could you feed it? The dog pen has a nightly porcupine visitor, now I know why. Fido goes elsewhere after dark now. Would it help to hose down the area?

Miller March 30, Follow Matthew. Twitter Facebook Mail Print. Smart nature straight to your inbox every week Sign up for the newsletter. This is one of the first things you learn upon arriving at Scout camp in the Pennsylvania woods. And unlike most of what I learned at Scout camp, this bit of lore was actually based on truth.

Porcupines really do frequent backwoods outhouses. Because they eat them. Covered in barbed quills. John What else does a porcupine chew? This created a harrowing situation for nature writer and ethicist Tovar Cerulli : [The porcupines] had nibbled through a brake hose… a problem I discovered on the way to work the next morning, when my foot went to the floor without slowing my pickup at all.

The porcupine practices a unique form of gun control. It eats them. Porcupine chew marks. Would you want this on your face? No, no you would not.

Porcupine snack! Porcupines are generalist herbivores, however their diet changes because of changes in plant chemistry. Feeding rates also change seasonally. In the spring and summer months feeding rates are reduced because plants contain a lot of protein. However, as the protein content of plants decreases in the autumn, feeding rates increase. Different porcupine populations have different diets. Porcupines in the Rocky Mountains mostly eat ponderosa pine phloem.

Porcupines in eastern forests feed on many different trees. In Massachussettes, porcupines rarely eat bark, but in Texas, they forage largely on bark. Roze, ; Snyder and Linhart, The crucial nutritional resource for porcupines is nitrogen. In winter, porcupines get nitrogen from bark, twigs, and evergreen needles.

Because these are not good sources of nitrogen, porcupines constantly loose weight throughout the winter. Porcupines can forage on low nitrogen foods because they have a unique ability to retain nitrogen from their food. Porcupines can digest very high fiber foods because food stays in their digestive tract for a very long time, allowing them to extract nutrients from this food.

Felicetti, et al. The diets of porcupines living in eastern deciduous forests have been well studied. In the spring, porcupines eat the buds of sugar maple trees, which are a rich source of protein. As soon as the leaves flush out, the sugar maple is abandoned because the leaves contain high amounts of tannins chemicals toxic to porcupines.

Porcupines begin to eat the cambium of basswood, aspen, and sapling beech trees. These contain a lot of protein and only a little tannin. Also ash trees are fed upon heavily, because they are relatively easy to climb compared to the smooth bark of beeches , and because they have relatively low tannin levels. In the autumn when oak acorns and beech nuts become available, porcupines begin to feed on these.

Porcupines are best a getting these nuts out of trees, and after the nuts have fallen to the ground, most of them are eaten by deer and squirrels. Winter foraging is focused on the phloem of hemlock and sugar maple trees. Other foods utilized by porcupines include raspberry stems, grasses, flowering herbs, and a large amount of apples. Herbivory has an effect on the sodium metabolism of porcupines, which results in a lust for salt. Porcupines will chew on the wooden handles of human tools, other human-made wood structures, and areas of collected roadside salt runoff.

Porcupine feeding happens primarily at night. This is because of changes in plant and leaf chemistry at night. Porcupines take advantage of the added nutrients available during the night-time metabolic processes of plants.

Porcupines defend themselves from predators in a variety of ways. Even without trying, a porcupine warns its enemies that it is a dangerous animal through its coloration. The white-tipped quills on a black band on the tail and back stand out, and warn possible predators of danger. If their coloration pattern does not deter predators, porcupines often avoid danger by climbing a tree to escape.

They can also clatter their teeth, which is another way that they warn predators. If these warnings fail, a porcupine will erect its quills, and release a nasty scent. Quills are only used for denfense if the threat has not been deterred by these other means. Roze, ; Roze, ; Sweitzer and Berger, Porcupines use their quills in two ways. Quills function a a shield made of barbs.

They can also be driven into the predator. Once a porcupine has stuck its quills into an enemy, the porcupine needs to quickly separate from the quills.

To do this, these animals have evolved unique quill-release systems. Erect quills release easier from the porcupine after they have been pushed into the would-be predator's body.

The force to help the release of the quills is supplied by the contact with the would-be predator. Relaxed quills show no difference in release energy required. Quills have a design that promotes their movement deeper into a predator once they have been embedded. The quills are not hollow, but are filled with a spongy matrix, which makes them very rigid and light.

Quills are dangerous for porcupines, too. It is common for porcupines to fall out of trees, and when they do, they can poke themselves with their own quills. Even with all their defenses, porcupines are preyed upon by a several predators.

The list includes lynx, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, wolverines, and great horned owls. Important predators include mountain lions and fishers. Mountain lions and fishers have different stratgies for attacking porcupines. Fishers attack repeatedly from the front, avoiding the dangerous tail quills, until they are able to flip the porcupine on its back and attack the unprotected belly. Mountain lions supposedly make no attempt to avoid the quills of porcupines; instead they attack at will and deal with the consequences.

Predators tend to hunt and kill porcupines mostly in open habitats. Sweitzer and Berger, ; Sweitzer, et al.

Several factors have led to stresses on porcupine populations. In the Great Basin, near extinction of a population of porcupines was discovered to be a direct result of increased mountain lion predation. Increased predation may have been a result of low mule deer populations in the area. Increased predation on porcupines can also be a consequence of predator shifting when snowshoe hare numbers decline. Increased stress from natural predators signifies the fragile dynamics between porcupines and their environment.

Historical studies have indicated a very cyclical fluctuation in populations of porcupines. Keith and Cary, ; Sweitzer, et al. In northern Michigan, Fishers Martes pennanti were reintroduced to limit the porcupine population growth and nearly eliminated the species from the area.

Limited den sites standing hollow snags , brought about by logging practices, increased porcupine exposure to fishers. In the northeast, where hemlock plays a major role in porcupine winter foraging, pests such as the hemlock wooly adelgid, Adelges tsugae , along with increased hemlock logging may pose problems for future porcupine habitat.

Porcupines of the Rocky Mountains share the habitat of wood ticks. Wood ticks, Dermacentor andersoni , are the host of Colorado Tick Fever virus. It is unlikely that porcupines spread this virus, since only adult ticks attach to porcupines.

Adult ticks do not spread the virus. Porcupines still play a significant role in the life cycle of these ticks, and infestation may be severe. In one study, 18 porcupines yielded a total of ticks. McLean, et al. Porcupines sometimes creat stresses on other species, especially plants. In Texas, where they feed largely upon the bark of pinyon pines, it has been suggested that the trees have been made more vulnerable to the infestation of bark beetles.

Ilse and Hellgren, ; Roze, Porcupines can be an important prey species, and populations of porcupines can be stressed by predators. In the Great Basin, one population of porcupines nearly became extinct because of increased mountain lion predation.

Increased predation on porcupines may occur when other prey species, such as mule deer and rabbits, decrease in numbers. Historical studies indicate a cyclical fluctuation in porcupine populations, inidcating that they exist in a fragile balance in their ecosystems.

Keith and Cary, ; Sweitzer and Berger, In other areas, predators can also have a big impact on porcupine populations. Fishers, Martes pennanti , were reintroduced in Northern Michigan in order to limit the porcupine population growth. The plan was overly successful, and nearly eliminated porcupines from the area.

In the northeast, where hemlock plays a major role in porcupine winter foraging, pests that affect the hemlock trees can affect porcupine populations. Pest such as hemlock wooly adelgids, Adelges tsugae , along with increased hemlock logging may pose problems for future porcupine habitat. Porcupines have two areas of conflict with humans. Their salt cravings often lead them to chew on housing structures, automobiles, and anything made of plywood or with salt residue usually from road de-icing salt.

They also have a negative impact on the timber industry. Trees that have been fed on by porcupines tend to have stunted growth and twisted evil looking crowns, usually making the tree unsuitable for use as lumber. Porcupines were once revered by Native American cultures throughout the continent as a food source, a source of quills for decoration, and legendary status.

Today, however, they are mostly considered a pest. North American porcupines use their large front teeth to satisfy a healthy appetite for wood. They eat natural bark and stems, and have been known to invade campgrounds and chew on canoe paddles.

North American porcupines also eat fruit, leaves, and springtime buds. Other porcupine species live in Africa, Europe, and Asia. These animals usually live on the ground and can inhabit deserts, grasslands, and forests. Female porcupines have between one and four young, depending on the species. Babies have soft quills at birth, which harden within a few days.

Most young porcupines are ready to live on their own at about two months of age. All rights reserved. Common Name: Porcupines.

Scientific Name: Hystricidae, Erethizontidae. Type: Mammals. Diet: Herbivore. Group Name: Family. Size: Head and body: 25 to 36 inches; tail: 8 to 10 inches. Weight: 12 to 35 pounds. Size relative to a teacup:. This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our photo community on Instagram. Follow us on Instagram at natgeoyourshot or visit us at natgeo.