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Mammal Tracks and Sign
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Porcupine
Page 2 of 3
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DENS |
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Porcupines like to den up in small caves
in rocks.
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Or under fallen trees, if there is a
deep enough and secure enough hole. This was in a swamp.
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A classic typical Porcupine den.
One can often tell that it's a
Porcupine den by the presence of porcupine scat immediately
outside the entrance.
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CHEWS |
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Porcupines eat trees. They will often
spend days in a single tree, chewing, digesting, and releasing
scat, which can sometimes be found in considerable volumes
underneath a tree.
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They will often simply sleep in the
tree, not coming to ground for several days.
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Porcupines are rodents, and as such, have two main
front teeth that continually grow. Gnawing wood wears them down.
Here are the teeth marks of a porcupine. Notice the similarity
between these marks and those of
beaver.
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HAIR |
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A Porcupine hair.
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OTHER SIGN |
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In spite of spending so much time in trees, porcupines sometimes fall
out of trees! Healed bone fractures are frequently found in porcupines.
The following photo shows what could be a fall site, where a porcupine
hit the ground. Note the shape of the compression in the snow, along
with the presence of quills. |
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