Bruce Mann, age 13, of Enid, Oklahoma, for his question:

Are baby porcupines born with quills?

The infants are born in the spring. There may be two or even three in the brood, but often a porcupine is an only child. At birth, he weighs a pound, which is somewhat more '. than an infant black bear cub. The youngster is bright eyed and wide awake from the first day. He is fully clothed, and looks like a small copy of his prickly mother. However, his spines are soft and pliable. He spends his first few days in a leafy nest, lined with grasses and root fibers. If two or three infant porcupines, each a fobt long and quite active, .were clothed in stiff prickles, these early days of life would be very difficult.

Junior, however, does not remain long in the nest. His prickles are quite hard and stiff after about ten days. Then the independent youngster starts off to make his own way in the world. Next fall, he may weigh 15 pounds and he is old enough to start dating.