North American Porcupine... Rodentia... Erenthizontidae... Erethizon dorsatum...
Front-on view of Porcupine skull... showing its bright orange gnawing teeth...
...they prefer tree bark and needles, but during different seasons eats leaves, grass, berries, seeds, nuts and flowers... when I imagine a porcupine with a flower hanging out of its mouth, it makes me feel sentimental towards them... prickly untouchable critter nibbling on a delicate flower...
Bottom jaw as seen from above...
This is probably one of the most intact skulls in my collection... especially since it has all its teeth...
Top skull upper jaw as seen from beneath...
Their habitat is widespread throughout wooded areas of North America... they do not hibernate and are active all year... their habit of eating the bark on trees, which eventually kills the trees, is not looked on too fondly and for this they are considered pests... but we must realize they are just part of the ecosystem...
...size of this skull... 4" front to back... 3" top to bottom... 2½" wide...
Large male porcupines can grow to about 30" long... head to tip of tail... and weigh 12 lb. ... females are slightly smaller...
Their teeth are amazing... I slid one out to show the length of them... they are almost 3" long and slide far inside the skull... top and bottom teeth are the same size...
I am imagining rabbit's skulls and teeth are the same.. possibly all rodents teeth are, as they are continually growing... and need constantly honed...
Top of skull... from above... beautiful lines and texture...
Porcupines have a detrimental love of salt... leading them to roadsides and to death...
this love of salt has also lured them to chew the handles off garden tools, canoe paddles, axe handles and saddles... just for a taste of that salty sweat we leave behind... they are only doing what comes naturally...
Slow moving... short sighted... sleeps most of the day...second largest North American rodent, next to beavers... long sharp claws to climb trees..
Porcupines are excellent swimmers due to their hollow quills giving them buoyancy... Quills cover their tail, back, sides, neck and top of head... they are approx. 3 " long...
When fully grown, a Porcupine may have as many as 30,000 quills... plenty to go around and leave a few behind when needed.... The quills are covered with many tiny backward facing barbs at the ends... ... he does not throw or shoot his quills as is commonly thought..
When the Porcupine is threatened, he turns his back... stamps his little feet... and raises and shakes his lightly fixed quills as a warning... just a matter of self-defense.... No, there are no Attack Porcupines...... there are mostly, curious would-be predators, who sniff around them, get just a bit too close and stick their noses where they don't belong.... The only true predators of the porcupine are the Fisher and Humans... The fisher grabs it by the nose, flips it on its back and attacks its unprotected chest and belly...
Our dogs have had a few unfortunate interactions with these creatures.. ending up with quills in their noses... lots of yelping...
...we even got quills stuck into us when we were moving our firewood around... a porcupine had taken up residence in the woodshed for a while and unknowingly left his calling cards after he was gone... they really stick in! ...now we know what the dogs or any other inquisitive creature feels like, when they come in contact with them...
...painful and difficult to remove... but if not removed, they have the ability to continue working their way into the victim... ... better not to let this happen... we have found it easiest to pull out the quills with pliers... first cover the dogs eyes so they don't see the pliers coming and grab the quill or quills close to the dog's skin...
When we discovered the skull in the forest, there were quite a few skeletal bones remaining with it... so we gathered them up too...
I cut the small hollow leg bones into bead size lengths with a jewelers saw ... they were easily threaded (here combined with black glass) to make a rather delicate primitive bracelet... I like the soft hue of the bone... on the ends are closures I created from brass...
...just a note.. bone has a rather unpleasant odor when sawn or drilled... any type of bone dust should not be breathed...
The male porcupine is a solitary animal for most of the year... in late fall he uses his sharp hearing and keen sense of smell to find a partner... after mating the female drives the male away... interesting, hummm... a single offspring is born 7 months later... can walk at once... climb in a week... and are quite playful... they take 4 years to become fully grown...
... maligned and misunderstood... Really not such a bad creature... they just like to chew...
...oh and remember ... Handle with care!!
...porcupine and quill drawings... ink and wash... from my sketchbook...
