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Julie Pung, age 11, of Fowler, Mich., for her question:

WHAT DO PORCUPINES EAT?

There are two types of porcupines  one called Old World (family Hystricidae) and the other New World (family Erethizotidae). Both are mainly nocturnal, solitary creatures that spend their days in holes in the ground or among rocks.

New World porcupines use their hind feet for climbing, and some varieties have prehensile tails. This is not the case with Old World porcupines. Old World porcupines, which can be found in Italy, Sicily, North Africa (from Morocco to the southern part of Egypt and the Sudan) and in tropical East Africa, are up to 28 inches long and weigh about 60 pounds when full grown. They are brownish black with white bands under their necks and halfway up their sides. Their head and necks are crested with long bristles while their bodies are covered with quills, some of which are long and slender while others are short and stout.

New World porcupines can be up to three and a half feet long, six inches of which is tail. They weigh up to 40 pounds and are found in North America (from Alaska to Central California and New Mexico, and eastward to Virginia).

The porcupine feeds mainly at dusk and at dawn or on moonlit nights. He enjoys bark, buds and leaves from deciduous trees. He also searches out salt and will often gnaw on the handle of a farm axe or pick where the taint of human sweat can be found. He has also been known to chew on glass bottles, presumably for alkali in the glass.

Roots and fruit are also favorites with the porcupine, and he often finds these near cultivated ground ¬making him a pest to the farmer.  Mating happens in November at which time a nest of leaves, grass and roots is made.

Two or three baby porcupines are born to the mother in spring or early summer. Each weighs a bit over a pound and is about 10 inches long. Baby's eyes are already open and he has soft? flexible quills which harden within 10 days. The new born is out climbing trees when he is two days old, and is weaned at 10 days.

The porcupine's stiff quills provide him with lots of protection. He defends himself by ereating his quills and rushing backwards. The quills are loose and easily detached. Often they become embedded in his enemy.

The Old World breed is often called the common or crested porcupine while the New World variety is called the Canadian porcupine.

 

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