The solitary Common Porcupine is active year-round, though in bitter cold it may den up in a hole in a rocky bluff, sometimes with others of its species. Primarily nocturnal, it may also rest by day in a hollow tree or log, underground burrow, or treetop, for it is an excellent, if slow and deliberate, climber. Yet the animal occasionally falls; about 35 percent of museum skeletons examined showed healed fractures. On the ground, it has an unhurried, waddling walk, relying on its quills for protection against more agile predators, although it prefers to retreat or ascend a tree rather than confront an enemy.
Ten Facts about Common Porcupine
- T 5 7/8-11 3/4" (148-300 mm); HF 3 3/8"-4 7/8" (86-124 mm); Wt 7 3/4-40 lb (3.5-18 kg).
- The life span of the Common Porcupine is seven to eight years.
- In addition to the Fisher, predators include the Mountain Lion, Bobcat, and Coyote.
- After a gestation of nearly seven months-an unusually long period for a rodent-the single young is born in May or June in a very precocious condition.
- The Common Porcupine mates mainly in October and November.
- They also eat young ash leaves, acorns, and beechnuts, apples.
- The common porcupine is found throughout the Sierra Nevada and Cascades from Kern Co. north to the Oregon border, south in the Coast Ranges to Sonoma Co., and from San Mateo Co. south to Los Angeles Co.
- Home range varies from a few to over 100 ha (250 ac).
- Prefers coniferous and mixed forests. In some parts of range, also found in riparian zones, grasslands, and shrub steppe.
- Gestation lasts 17-18 wk (usually 210 days).
