My husband came in the house a few years ago looking rather annoyed; something had chewed his shovel handle. I had been gardening and left it outside instead of putting it back in the shed.

My hopes were to garden the next day and saw no reason to put it away when I was going to use it the next day. I had an idea who had been gnawing on the shovel handle and the next morning my husband confirmed it. He encountered a porcupine licking his truck tires. They have an insatiable need for salt.

A large rodent

Porcupines are in the rodent family and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Known by the scientific name Erethizon dorsatum, the North American porcupine is the second largest rodent in North America. Only the beaver is larger. These animals are easily distinguishable by their thick coat of sharp quills that they use for protection and insulation. Some quills can get up to a foot long. Porcupines are covered in quills all over their body except their belly, face and feet.

Scientists group porcupines into two groups: Old World porcupines, which are found in Africa, Europe, and Asia; and New World porcupines, which are found in North, Central, and South America. The North American porcupine is the only species found in the United States and Canada.

They eat what?

Porcupines are herbivores. This means they eat mostly vegetation. Some porcupines love wood and eat a lot of bark and stems. This can get them in trouble with homeowners as their chewing of bark sometimes girdles trees and kills them. They also eat nuts, tubers, seeds, grass, leaves, fruit and buds. While porcupines do not eat meat, they do chew on bones to sharpen their teeth. Bones also give them important minerals, like salt and calcium, to keep them healthy.

Not the best predator

Porcupine predators include coyotes, bears, eagles, owls, fishers and humans. Porcupines’ faces are the only unprotected portion other than their bellies, and the fisher has evolved quickness and agility in order to take advantage of this gap in the porcupine’s armor. Fishers are long and low to the ground, which gives them advantages over the porcupines.

Biting the faces of the porcupines, chasing porcupines up trees to wear them out are two hunting tactics. Like squirrels, fishers can climb trees and then swivel around and descend headfirst into the porcupines, forcing them to the ground.

Once on the ground, the exhausted porcupines are no matches for the fishers.

Porcupines will release an odor to alert predators to their presence. The quills are used as a secondary defense mechanism. They may shake vigorously, which makes the quills rattle, or they may raise them much like a dog or cat raises their hackles.

Swiftly moving their tails back and forth may dislodge quills as well. If that doesn’t work, they may charge backward toward the threat.

The quills are loosely attached in the follicle, but porcupines are unable to shoot the quills like so many cartoons have shown. Some of the quills have scales or barbs that make them extremely hard to remove. Because porcupines can have 30,000 or more quills covering their bodies, losing quills is not a problem because they will grow back over time.

Someone had asked me once what would happen if a porcupine was “quilled.” The chances of that happening are pretty slim but I was willing to play the “what if” game and told him something I had learned. The porcupine has natural antibiotics in its skin to prevent infection if it would ever get “quilled.” I did not share with the youngster who asked this question that mating can sometimes be a little tricky and it’s possible that an amorous male might be quilled in the “process.”

Home sweet home

Porcupines living in Pennsylvania can be found in wetlands and forests. Denning in hollow trees, tree branches or tangles of roots, rock crevices, brush or logs. Porcupines do not hibernate but stick close to their dens during harsh weather.

Porcupines are nocturnal, which means they are active during the night and sleep during the day. During the night, they forage for food and spend their time in the trees during the daylight hours.

Cute babies

Porcupettes (baby porcupines) have soft quills, which harden in a few days. Porcupettes mature at between 9 months and 2.5 years, depending on species, and can live up to 15 years in the wild. They can climb trees the same day they are born, and most babies set off on their own within a few months. Porcupines aren’t really social. They are typically solitary, although they may pair up. A mother and her young are considered a family group called a prickle.

Something interesting crossed my mind about rodents as a group of animals; usually they produce a lot of offspring because they are preyed upon by so many other animals. Interestingly enough, porcupines only produce one per year.

Porcupines are currently not listed as endangered or threatened, although if I leave more garden tools lying around, that might change! (Of course, I am kidding! My husband would never harm an animal!)

Jeannie Carl is a naturalist at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill. The center rehabilitates injured animals and educates the public on a variety of wildlife found in the area. For information on the Carbon County Environmental Center, visit www.carboneec.org.