World Porcupine Day

1. Rodents are warm blooded mammals. They all have a pair of front teeth that are always growing and getting bigger. They all have to chew on things such as wood to keep their teeth from growing too long! They also have chisel like teeth on the top and bottom of their jaws. Most rodents are covered in fur. But that is where porcupines are a bit different.

2. Porcupines are covered in needle like quills. In fact they are thought to be covered in about 30,000 quills, which is quite a lot! Their quills are made out of keratin, the same stuff our hair and nails are made of. The quills are long, sharp and hollow. 

3. The end of porcupines quills are barbed, which means there are tiny sticky hooks on the end of each one. If a predator tries to attack a porcupine they are very likely to get a quill stuck into their skin. The quills can seriously hurt or even kill other animals. 

4. Some people think porcupines can ‘shoot’ their quills out. This is not true, but they do come out really easily. They can even drop some of them in the path of predators as they run away.

5. Most of the time a porcupines quills lie quite flat along their body. If they are scared they will bang their teeth together, stomp their feet and shake their quills so they make a rattling sound and stick up. If that doesn’t work they might run sideways or backwards into a predator. It can also swing its tail.

6. There are around 30 species of porcupines. They are split into two types of porcupine, old world porcupines and new world porcupines. Old world porcupines live in Europe, Africa and Asia and new world porcupines live in the USA and South America.

7.  Old world porcupines are quite a lot bigger than new world porcupines, with longer quills. They live on the ground and are active mostly at night. 

8. New world porcupines  are usually smaller than old world porcupines and have smaller quills. They live in forests and prefer to live up in the trees most of the time. They spend more time awake in the day.

9. When porcupines are born their quills are soft. After they are born their quills start to harden within a couple of days.

10. Most porcupines are herbivores and eat leaves, bark and fruit. Some old world porcupines will also eat things such as insects. Porcupines are sometimes seen gnawing on animal bones to keep their teeth short and to absorb minerals such as calcium.