Perusing Pennsylvania's Prickly Porcupine Population

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, porcupines inhabit the rugged mountains of northcentral Pennsylvania; the timbered land in the northwest and northeast corners; and high-wooded sections of the ridge-and-valley region. Few, if any, live in the southwestern or southeastern parts of the state. WPC staff have recorded the porcupine as far south as Kittanning, Armstrong County. The porcupine is North America's second largest rodent; only the beaver is bigger. The porcupine is a blackish, quill-armored, slow-moving rodent with an appetite for tree bark, twigs and salt. It lives in forests and often can be seen hunched into what appears to be a black ball high in a tree. The porcupine is one of our best-known and most easily identified wild animals.

Its scientific name is Erethizon dorsatum . The word "porcupine" comes from two Latin words, porcus ("swine") and spina ("thorn"), which also reflect the species' colloquial name, quill pig. In the East, porcupines inhabit Canada and New England south into northern Virginia; they range through the northern Midwest and from Alaska through the Rocky Mountains into Mexico.

The above photo of a recovering porcupine was taken at last September's WPC Members' Day event "Wild in the Woods."

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