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American Porcupine

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American porcupine - ERETHEZON DORSATUM
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
Subclass: True Mammals (Eutheria)
Order: Gnawing Mammals (Rodentia)
Family: Erethizontidae.

American Porcupine
Scientific Name: Erethizon dorsatum
Geographical Range: North America, Alaska, northern Mexico.

North American Porcupine
Erethizon dorsatum
The porcupine is a quill-bearing rodent (Order Rodentia) of the families Erethizontidae (New World) and Hystricidae (Old World).

North American Porcupine
The North American Porcupine is a well-protected, plant-eating rodent that spends much of its time in trees, looking for food. These slow-moving animals have sharp, needle-like quills protecting their body.

North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)
No photo of the North American Porcupine available.

North American Porcupine
Fossil range: Late Pliocene - Recent
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1] ...

The North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) is a slow moving member of the rodent family. It is our 2nd largest rodent, only surpassed by the American Beaver in size in the United States.

American Porcupines
All the New World porcupines, representing the family Erethizontidae (or Coendidae) are arboreal in their habits, and have the upper lip undivided, the cheek-teeth rooted, the clavicles complete, ...

North American Porcupines are large, slow-moving, tree-climbing rodents, protected from predators by their formidable quills. In winter, they eat the bark, phloem, and cambium of trees, particularly conifers.

North American Porcupine
Erethizon dorsatum
These slow-moving rodents are found in Minnesota's forest lands.

North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum),
Second largest: The North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), also known as Canadian Porcupine, is a large rodent in the New World porcupine family.

North American Porcupine
Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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North American Porcupine
(Erethizon dorsatum)
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Gophers, Rats, Mice, Voles and Lemmings ...

These South American porcupines are made for life in the trees. Their feet are built for gripping branches, and they have sharp claws which help them hold on. Their most distinctive feature however is their long, spineless, prehensile tail.

North American porcupines spend the day, singly or in groups, in rock cavities, hollow logs, or burrows. At night they forage in trees, feeding on leaves, buds and bark. They subsist in winter entirely on bark stripped from evergreens.

Like their New World equivalents, the North American porcupines, Old World porcupines are large, heavyset, slow-moving animals that rely on their imposing quills for defense rather than on speed or agility.

The American porcupines include four genera: the tree porcupines of Central and South America, the North American porcupine, the thin-spined porcupine of Brazil, and the Amazonian porcupine.

The North American porcupine is the only species that lives in the U.S. and Canada, and is the largest of all porcupines. A single animal may have 30,000 or more quills.

The most common of the new world porcupines is the forest living North American porcupine.
The prehensile-tailed porcupine, like other New World porcupines, is very near-sighted and has a keen sense of touch, hearing and smell.

They have spines among the hair, and they roll up like a ball to protect themselves , somewhat like the American porcupine , which is incorrectly called a hedgehog .
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SPECIES: Meet the North American Porcupine
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If cornered by a predator, porcupines aim their backsides toward the animal and sink raised quills into its skin. Accordingly, the scientific name of the North American porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum, ...

See also: Porcupine, North american porcupine, Beaver, Coyote, Bear