Prehensile - Tail Porcupine

CLASS: Mammalia
ORDER: Rodentia
FAMILY: Erethizontidae
GANUS/SPECIES: Coendou prehensils

Porcupine resting on a branch

DESCRIPTION: Adults attain a weight of approximately 12 pounds. The spines are distributed over the body growing sparse on the tail towards the distal half. The adult spines are white, stiff, and about 2 1/2 inches long. Those on the roundish head are about one inch long. The nose is naked and appears bulbous in the adult. A relaxed animal will keep its body quills laid flat against its body. The shorter head quills tend to remain erect at all times.

RANGE: South America east of the Andes in Columbia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Amazonian and South East Brazil, Bolivia and Trinidad to 1500 meters in elevation but generally found below 500 meters elevation.

HABITAT: Mature and Secondary Rainforst, Deciduous forest, Galery forest and gardens and plantations.

Zoo attendant feeds a baby porcupine.

REPRODUCTION/GESTATION: about 180 days. The spines are soft at birth and the young have long orange guard hair distinctly different from those of the adult. Coendou are precocious at birth. There is very little parental care outside of nursing.

DIET: Seeds from immature fruit, green or ripe fruit, palm fruit, occasionally bark and probably leaves.

BEHAVIOR: Primarily arboreal and socially tolerant but non-gregarious.

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