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American porcupine - ERETHEZON DORSATUM Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia) Subclass: True Mammals (Eutheria) Order: Gnawing Mammals (Rodentia) Family: Erethizontidae.
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American Porcupine Scientific Name: Erethizon dorsatum Geographical Range: North America, Alaska, northern Mexico.
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North American PorcupineErethizon dorsatum The porcupine is a quill-bearing rodent (Order Rodentia) of the families Erethizontidae (New World) and Hystricidae (Old World).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 . Other animal pictures Need more info type in animal name then put info at the end ...
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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, ...
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See also: Porcupine, North american porcupine, Beaver, Coyote, Bear

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