Do you ever get curious about what you see when you walk in the woods? What if you saw this?
What would you say happened here? I saw these trees before the snowfall, and at that time, there were no noticeable tracks around them. Man-made? Animal-made? Some sort of equipment-made? A space invasion? Here is a close up:
Hint: Can you see the teeth marks? What is your guess?
Come on keep trying.
Hint: It has quills.
It is a Porcupine.
What is a Porcupine doing chewing on trees, damaging them and killing some?
The area of the tree just under the bark gives the Porcupine the food it needs to survive the winter. In warmer weather the Porcupine eats leaves, twigs and green plants.
How do you tell the difference between Porcupine and Rabbit gnawing? Rabbits may also chew on bark in the winter, but they tend to pick smaller woody plants (e.g. bushes) and chew the bark on branches more so than the main stem. Rabbits also don’t climb trees and so any chewing up in a tree is Porcupine chewing.
Paul Bolstad, University of Minnesota, Bugwood.org
For the record, Porcupines cannot shoot their quills. However, when threatened they turn away from the threat, the quills on their back stand straight up and they lash out with their tail. Their quills easily come out of the Porcupine on impact and barbs on them tend to swell with body heat and carry the quill further into the animal they are stuck in. I remember a family dog we had to put down because she had so much infection from the quills after she got in a tangle with a Porcupine.
Porcupines den up in rocky outcrops, hollow logs and in big old hollow trees like this Beech tree in the picture.
I think they are messy creatures. As you can see, their droppings pile up at the base of the tree. May make great manure for the garden!
Other interesting facts about Porcupines:
- They are mostly out at night (nocturnal).
- They have one young born in April called a porcupette.
- The quills are soft when the young Porcupine is born, but harden several hours after birth.
- They make a lot of different noises including moans, grunts, coughs, wails, whines, shrieks and tooth clicking. You can listen to porcupine sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library. Just use their search tool and type “Common Porcupine”.
When you are out enjoying different activities you can do in your woods, such as Watch, Listen and Learn, look for Porcupines and their evidence.
