North American Porcupines in Maine

As we often see porcupines in the woods and crossing the trail in autumn and during years with little snow in winter, I thought I'd write about them now. By the way, for more information see this interesting Northern Woodlands article.

We saw this one while on a walk through a nearby woodland. Porcupines prefer mixed or coniferous forests. Their winter range is about 6 acres in our area. They are generally solitary animals but might den together in wintertime.

Porcupines are the third largest rodent in the world, behind the capybara and the beaver. The North American porcupine has an average body length of 24"-36" and body weights between 7.7 lbs to 39.7 lbs.

What surprised us was the dirt mound he was standing on.  

We don't know what the purpose of it was, but I have read that porcupines bury the bones of other animals that they find in the woods, so maybe this is a burial mound??? It seems rather bizarre to me and I don't remember the source of the article.

Den sites, especially long-used sites, are recognized by piles of droppings, and may include a rocky cavern of ledge, a hollow log, an abandoned fox or beaver den, and even abandoned buildings.  Source: DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001.

Porcupines eat wood vegetation in winter, particularly inner cambium, buds, and needles of white pine and especially hemlock in the northeast, and the bark of sugar maple and birch trees. In summertime, they add fruits, seeds, nuts and the leaves of aspen, elm, basswood, and birch to their diet. Source: DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001.

The quills are modified hairs coated with thick plates of Keratin, and they are embedded in the skin. Quills are released by contact with them, or they may drop out when the porcupine shakes its body. Porcupines cannot shoot attackers with quills (like projectiles) as many people think. They will loosen the quills then swing their tail toward their attacker. There are tiny barbs on the tip of the quill that allow the quill to be embedded into the attacker's skin and are difficult to remove.

This is a riveting 16 second clip of the porcupine chewing on some vegetation. All you can really see are his quills quivering during the super slow chewing action. I was quivering as well as it was about 30F outside;-)

African Crested porcupine quill collected by Gary Haines
North American porcupine quills collected by Laurie Haines

And here is a photo of the difference between the quill length of the North American porcupine quills (3.5" long) versus an African Crested porcupine quill (10.5" long.) The crested porcupine has an average body length of 24"-33", and weights from between 29 lbs to 60 lbs. They tend to charge their disturber back end first trying to stab them with their thicker, shorter quills.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_porcupine

Gee...so how do you remove a quill from your skin if you happen upon an angry porcupine? Pull the quill out very carefully with pliers (regular and needle-nosed.) Firmly grasp the base of the quill near the skin, but be careful not to break the quill. Pull the quill straight out in a rapid motion, at the same angle as the quill went in. Disinfect with hydrogen peroxide, then put antibiotic ointment on the wounds. See a doctor and get a rabies shot if necessary.

NOTE: DO NOT CUT THE END OF THE QUILL BEFORE REMOVAL. THIS MIGHT SPLINTER THE QUILL AND MAKE REMOVAL MORE DIFFICULT. AND, NEVER USE YOUR HANDS TO REMOVE THE QUILLS AS THE BARBS MAY IRRITATE YOUR SKIN.

The first measurable snowfall of the 2025-2026 season

We got 7.5" of light, somewhat fluffy snow yesterday and into the early morning hours today. Here is our snow measuring table within the vegetable garden area in the front yard.

And, here is the snow covered bird feeding area on the south side of the house.

Kindergarten Blue Trail and deer tracks in the snow

After 7.5 inches of snow, the trees and trail were so pretty today, on Woods Wednesday. 

The pine boughs are heavily laden with snow which makes the trail even more picturesque.

The kids had lots of fun following the Blue Trail to the forest classroom.

On my way back to the school parking lot, I decided to blaze my own trail along the top of the athletic fields next to the forest. There I found numerous white-tailed deer trails crisscrossing each other and then continuing on the other side of the fence.

This is such a busy deer highway! We are thinking of setting up a game camera some weekend to see how many deer travel out in the open at night.