Penelope Porcupine

Last week I walked outside one morning and there was a porcupine walking around in our front yard. Since they are typically noctural I was a bit surprised!

Today she was back...up in a tree.

 I never knew that porcupines even climbed trees but it turns out that they are excellent climbers!

 The porcupine has about 30,000 quills.  Their main diet consists of leaves, twigs, skunk cabbage, lupines and clover in the spring, and in the winter it chews through the rough outer bark of certain trees, including pine, which is where we found her today.

 

An interesting fact is that porcupines give birth to just one baby.  When the baby is born its quills are soft but they harden within half an hour of being born.