iNaturalist<\/a> for pictures citizen scientists have taken of porcupines and posted on the popular wildlife sharing app. The research is expanding to include the use of trail cameras to verify reports of porcupine activity.<\/p>\n“We\u2019ve had people tell us you used to not be able to drive on Highway 97 without hitting them, there were so many of them. Or they were in our ag fields, and we had problems with them eating our alfalfa,” Bivona said. “It is heartwarming how many people have reached out and called me to say \u2018It was crossing the road.\u2019 Almost everybody explains they have a really cute waddle as it walked down the road. They are a pretty charismatic species. I think a lot of people are getting excited about\u2014now they are taking a harder look at them.”<\/p>\n
A few facts about porcupines:<\/p>\n
In winter, they eat the bark of trees. In summer, they eat grasses and forbs.Female porcupines give birth to one baby per year.Baby porcupines are called porcupettes.<\/p>\n
“You do not want to cuddle a porcupine. As cute as porcupette sounds, they still have quills,” Bivona said. “Their quills are interesting. They have over 30,000 of them. Covers the back of their neck down to their tail. They are barbed and they are really difficult to pull out once they attach to something. That\u2019s where a lot of people have to bring their dogs to the vet to remove the quills.”<\/p>\n
Porcupines do not throw their quills. They need to be pushed into something, such as a dog\u2019s nose, before they\u2019ll release. Porcupines can slap their tails, which increases the possibility of their barbed quills making contact and sticking in whatever is threatening them.<\/p>\n
Some people view porcupines as pests.<\/p>\n
“They can actually end up killing a tree by feeding on it too extensively. People get concerned about that. I\u2019ve had people tell me all the things they\u2019ve tried. With all wildlife, it is typically going to take a compilation of things. The main thing I recommend is to get aluminum flashing and wrap it around the base of the tree. Cut any limbs that hang low that they can pull themselves up on because they are good climbers, but they cannot grip on that aluminum flashing. If they can\u2019t get up, they will move on to a different tree they can more easily access.”<\/p>\n
Until there is more data available, it\u2019s difficult to say why porcupine numbers have declined, but being hit by cars is likely a contributing factor.<\/p>\n
“They are so small, they\u2019re slow moving and they\u2019re dark,” Bivona said. “Their first reaction is to not run away. Even if they could, they would not run very quickly. Their first reaction is to turn their back, and that just doesn\u2019t work on a lot of vehicles.”<\/p>\n
Bivona tells people to be cautious as they drive near canyon areas or anywhere wildlife regularly crosses.<\/p>\n
Keep an eye out for the big deer, the big elk — but also the little guys like porcupines.<\/p>\n
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is working with the High Desert Museum to train volunteers on how to set up trail cameras and document the presence of porcupines. The research will be similar to the recent Sierra Nevada red fox project<\/a>, to which volunteers made significant contributions.<\/p>\n“It looks smaller, and it looks darker. I wonder\u2026 we\u2019ve gotten pictures of a mom and her porcupette on camera here. I\u2019m wondering if that\u2019s her baby and it\u2019s finally figured out how to climb trees. Man\u2026 what a good day!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEND, Ore. — A survey is underway of the porcupine population in the Deschutes Basin, and you can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[16651,3729,3,48407,79,48405,48406,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-66006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-email","9":"tag-local","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pets-animals-nature","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-the-great-outdoors","14":"tag-weekly-features","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}