"PORCUPINES ARE WALKING PINCUSHIONS. Their permanently unkempt hairdo is actually a protective fortress of some 30,000 quills. But their body armor can be a liability, too - porcupines are known to accidentally quill themselves. "They're big and dopey and slow," said Tim Bean, an ecologist at California Polytechnic State University who has collared porcupines as part of his research. They waddle from tree to tree, usually at night, to snack on foliage or the nutrient-rich inner layer of bark."
"The 43-year-old hasn't seen another porcupine since. Porcupine encounters are rare among his tribe, and the few witnesses seem to fit a pattern: Almost all of them are elders, and they fondly remember an abundance of porcupines until the turn of this century. Now, each new sighting rings like an echo from the past: a carcass on the road; a midnight run-in."
Porcupines are visually distinctive but rarely seen, with many people never encountering one in the wild. Karuk Tribe members recall abundant porcupines until about the turn of the century, but recent observations are sporadic and mostly from elders. The decline extends beyond Northern California across the West, motivating wildlife scientists to search for surviving populations and causes of disappearance. Tribal and scientific groups are already planning ambitious restoration efforts to reintroduce porcupines to forests. Porcupines possess roughly 30,000 quills for protection, are slow and nocturnal, and feed on foliage and the inner layer of bark.
Read at High Country News
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