Wildlife Wednesday Smiles – Mom Porcupine

Meet a porcupine mom for today’s Wildlife Wednesday Smiles.

This was the bestest discovery moment – a porcupine mom at the base of over a 75-foot hackberry tree while her porcupette slept in its upper branches. During the excitement over seeing the baby, it took an entire walk around the base of the tree to see the mom guarding her baby below. This mom carried her baby for seven months so she was going to protect it.

Porcupines are by far the raddest mammal here in the US. Most definitely underappreciated and most misunderstood. I scream with excitement when I see one. Porcupines, who are adapt tree climbers, have gentle souls, along with the sweetest faces. The myth of them throwing their quills is false. They cannot throw their quills. Those quills get released and embedded when they are attacked or back into their attacker.

Herbivores all the way! Their front incisors continually grow. They have to gnaw to keep those incisors in check. Leaving sheds on the ground for them to gnaw on helps these mammals acquire minerals that wildflowers, bark, leaves, roots, or seeds do not give them.

Now, Ginny and I will always have to pay attention to the bottoms of the trees when we excitedly see a porcupine in a tree.

This wildlife moment was captured in December 2021.