Love hurts: Especially when you’re a porcupine in Upstate NY during the fall (2024)

Much is written about warning drivers to be on the lookout this time of year for white-tailed deer being on the move and carelessly crossing roads during “the rut,” which is their annual breeding season.

Deer aren’t the only critters ending up as road kill because of their breeding behavior. Porcupines also mate this time of year.

Prime time for mating porcupines in the Adirondacks is Veteran’s Day through Thanksgiving; and in the Catkills, into December. The slow-traveling males move around to locate as many females in estrus as that they can, and in the process end up crossing roadways and getting run over by passing motor vehicles.

Porcupines, found throughout much of Upstate New York, are the country’s second-largest rodent. Only beavers are bigger. Porcupines range from 24 to 40 inches long and average 10 to 35 pounds in weight.

The two biggest populations are in the Adirondacks and the Catskills, said Ron Giegerich, instructional support specialist at SUNY ESF. Their range has been expanding more lately into the Southern Tier and Central New York, he said.

Porcupines in the wild usually live five to seven years, but have been known to live up to 20 years, Giegerich said. They are mostly nocturnal, hanging out during the day in dens or up in trees. They come in various colors (brown, black and gray) and the females keep reproducing their entire adult lives, but in most cases only have one kit (baby porcupine) a year.

“As a result, it’s going to take a while for the population to expand,” he said.

The animal’s claim to fame are their needle-sharp quills that cover the animal’s upper body and tail, intermixed with heavy fur to keep them warm. The only body parts without quills are the animal’s face and underside. A single porcupine can have as many as 30,000 quills, which are hollow and barbed, thus making them painful to remove. The quills are hollow, which make the animal very buoyant in the water when they go after water lilies, one of their favorite summertime foods.

Their main predator is the fisher, an animal that often successfully manages to flip them over and attack the porcupine’s underside, Other predators can include coyotes, red foxes, black bears, bobcats, minks, martens, long-tailed weasels, ermines and great horned owls. However, these other predators are for the most part not as adept as fishers and sometimes end up succumbing to the quills.

Dogs that mix it up with porcupines often end up with quills stuck in their mouth, nose or face. The best way to deal such situations is to take your animal to a local vet. Those pet owners who try to take them out themselves should have a good set of pliers or hemostats and have someone else with them to hold and try and keep the dog calm. And never break or trim the quills before removing them. You can make the problem much worse. Read more about this.

Contrary to common belief, porcupines cannot throw their quills. When aroused, they flex a muscle on their back which makes the quills, which are easily detached, stand up on their back. The animal’s thick muscular tail can swing and drive their quills into any predator. Any lost quills are quickly replaced on the porcupine’s body.

There are 29 species world-wide, but only one, the North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), lives in this country. While the porcupines in Africa and Europe hang together in large family groups, those found in the Americas are usually. solitary, according to adirondackalmanack.com.

Porcupines do not hibernate during the winter. They lean toward more leafy edibles during the summer months, and various woody edibles, including buds and bark, during the winter. They also relish salt and have been known to chew on ax handles, boat paddles or anything else coated with salt from perspiring human hands.

As for their mating behavior, it can be a “racous affair,” according to Dian Parker, who wrote about the topic for the Adirondack Almanac. Mating can take place in a variety of settings, varying from tree tops to the forest floor. The activity is often accompanied by a wide variety of sounds include whining, moaning, grunting, clicking of their teeth – in addition to “wails, shrieks and siren-like screaming.”

The males are very possessive about the females they choose to mate with. It’s not uncommon for males to battle each other for the privilege – fights that can result in serious injury or even death, Parker wrote.

And as part of the courtship behavior, a male who settles in with a receptive female sprays her with “bursts of urine before mating with her,” according to Parker and other sources.

The female is pregnant for about seven months before giving birth. Newborn porcupines come into the world equipped with a full array of soft quills, which harden hours after they are born.

Seeing that it’s the fall hunting season, can porcupines be hunted?

According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, porcupines are an “unprotected species,” like red squirrels, woodchucks, English sparrows, starlings, rock pigeons and monk parakeets.

“Unprotected species may be taken at any time without limit,” according to the DEC website. “A hunting license is required to hunt unprotected wildlife with a bow, crossbow, or firearm.”

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