Porcupines. In the late 1960s and throughout the 70s, porcupines were extremely common throughout most of Idaho. It was not uncommon to see multiple live porkys and roadkills almost everywhere in the state. I'd probably see a couple hundred per year. Now, here we are in the new millenium, and since 2008 (15 years) that I've been back in Idaho, I've seen maybe 30 or 40 total, both live ones and roadkills. What caused this dramatic decline? Fairly rare to see one nowadays. What are other folks seeing for porcupines?





Can't forget to look at the baculum of a trophy male.


Jack

I've often wondered the same , here in Oregon we used to see them all the time in the eighties and nineties but not so much the last 20 years

Probably lack of trapping pressure on fisher and marten.

I knew I had a porky in my art folder somewhere ! Done for WCT long ago. They love chewing on tool handles, antlers , into cabins...

In the Bob wilderness, I stayed at a FS cabin . Making camp there, I fixed up the place nice , and had my dinner cooking ...then I heard chewing....under a shelf inside . Who did I find but a huge almost green looking porky....I opened the door and got a broom and proceeded to attempt sweeping him outside. He wasn't happy...well I wasn't either . He hit that broom with his tail and backed into it a dozen times before I finally convinced him to go out the door. Just as I settled in for the night, I hear the chewing again....on the outside of the door. I played not at home game, but he woke me several times chewing at the door ....grrrrrrrrr

Nice shots , Jack. Like how the fur folds over itself along his side in the second shot.

Good to see you , Jack. Been thinking of you, finished your book. Loved it.

On the surface...face to the wind

The porky population made a sudden drop here on the N Kenai Peninsula maybe 6 years ago or so. Muskrats, while never very numerous, also have declined along with redback voles and marten. I was however surprised to see quite a few roadkill porky south of Soldotna to Homer a couple years ago. Every thing from ermine to coyotes to brown bears all seem to have at least a few quills so I know there are still some around but way way fewer. I have found several porkies killed and eaten by coyotes over the years and the quills in the coyotes can be pretty bad at times. Used to see porkies in the ditches in the spring all the time eating fresh greens along the Seward Hiway from Anchorage south. Can't remember the last time I saw one on that drive. I remember had so few quills left on it's back that it was almost bare skin. I figured a bear cub must have messed with it. I suppose some animals get quilled to the point it kills them.

I haven't seen many Porkies around here either, (interior AK) over the past several years. Seems like I see road killed ones fairly often south of Alaska Range. Over the years, however, about 10% of our Marten catch had a few quill tips laying between the inside of their skin and their muscle. So there are some around. Those embedded quill tips did not seem to be bothering the Marten in terms of swelling or infection. Thanks for the pictures.

As an upland bird hunter all of my dogs except the newest one have ended up with a face full of quills from being tail-slapped. The newest has only encountered a dead one which, of course, he had to mess with and get about thirty quills in his left front leg and paw and left rear leg.

My son-in-law assisting with the quill removal.



You've heard of being up ____ Creek without a paddle? Well I found the source of that creek. That is all porcupine crap.



The numbers do seem to be declining around my camp in north central PA. Perhaps due to the increase in fisher numbers.

We never had them here in the southeast.

Porkys were never very plentiful in the boreal bush here.There is the odd one,but rare to find them.
As a kid growing up in central Ontario there were lots of porkys in the mixed maple and hemlock bush there.Often in late april if you went for a hike in the bush and found a porcupine in a tree you would find the single baby on the ground under the tree.I believe they only have one young maybe two at most so when their numbers decline they cannot make a quick comeback.
Most fisher I catch-which is not a lot will have a quill or two in their head neck area,so they are around here in the boreal.Not sure how they are holding up in the central Ontario mixed bush.

Nice artwork, Sharon.

Ate one in moose camp years ago. Not bad just had a slight silty flavor since we were hunting on a silty river, WHATEVER THAT IS...

X2

Those jokers are not in short supply near me. I live near the Sun River and I bet I catch near 2 dozen a year. Got one yesterday.

I used to catch a lot of them around my camp. I skinned one once, wanted to tan it. They have very thin skin, thinner and easier to tear than a possum or rabbit even.

I think there is a market for the western porkys-their hair grows a lot longer than the eastern ones I believe,and native dancers use the hair for making pow wow regalia.
The quills are also used by native craftspeople.

Wiss miss might have a handle on the price structure of that market.

I always wanted to attach a strip of porky hide on the back of my gloves in case I needed to give someone a backhander in the puss..

I tried eating one once. It was like eating turpentined lard. I spit it right over the side of the boat ! They also carry a tremendous endoparasite load

Boco

I hope you don’t wipe your nose on the back of your glove you must do a farmer blow, eh?

LOL.

Hey White

We cooked OURporky well done! Didn’t think of eating it raw!

Boco (and others)...

Yes, porkys are actually worth quite a little chunk of change if you make the time to harvest the "parts". Guard hair, plucked and cleaned of any and all underfur, is worth quite a bit per ounce. Likewise, good long quills are bought by the ounce, and can be removed from the carcass easily by batting it with closed-cell foam, them pulling the quills by hand from the foam. Also, claws are worth the time to cut them off the feet individually, and the skull is worth a couple bucks. All-in-all, pretty much every western porcupine is worth at least $40 if you part it out. I never pass up a roadkill, but with the population so depressed these days, I don't kill them any more when I encounter a live one.

Jack

Lots here on the prairies. In farmland where I trap I have to harvest them all. In the bush where I trap they get a free pass. You can sell the skulls, claws ,quills and guard hair. If your really adventurous you can get the bezoar stones out of the stomach. Chinese like them for medicinal purposes.


First 3 of the year that I plucked. Some have lots of hair others are sparse


Couldn’t find a good picture of our porkys. I need to take better pictures like Jack.

Some of the Swampy Cree do a beautiful quill patterns on smoked moose hides. Rose's bring out another meaning when you see them.
Back in the 1970-80 they tried to find the % of dark and % of yellow hairs and their numbers have dropped since then.
Ironically the prairie region of Manitoba has more porkies than the aspen parkland and boreal.
You can always find where they are in burr oak trees as the tips of the branches are scattered on the ground. Many eat and go back into some burrow close by for several days.

The toilet areas do have a turpentine smell and are visited by travelling animals making a gold mine for ADC guys.
BC Pete wise often tells of how to remove them. They swing their tails and eventually get tired doing it. Then he bends down and grabs the back feet and lifts- now he has a portable wheelbarrow and he walks it to his truck, where a 12 inch plank has been laid down to walk up - into a closed cab of the truck- relocation is simple-plank down and Pete goes and pours a coffee- clunk-clunk and relocation has been done, sometimes before the coffee is finished.

I had to take down four hemlocks in my camp yard this summer. Two were dead from porkies and two were not going to survive another winter of porkies chewing the tips off the branches. Every spring the ground under the hemlocks is littered with a mat of boughs from porkies chewing them off.

Beech trees seem to be their other favorite food. I planted 18 beech saplings along my driveway three or four years ago. There's not one that hasn't been chewed on and several were girdled and had to be replaced. I finally put 36" tall aluminum tubes around them. Hopefully that keeps them off.

Here’s a pic of some of the tubes. You can see some of the hemlock stumps on the right.




The quill pigs have caused me a lot of extra work.

The ones here I have eaten were pretty good. No spruce around so they eat willow . Taste similar to beaver, not much fat though.

I come across about half dozen each year sitting in Jack Pine trees and about a dozen on the road dead or alive.

You guys think they’re better off left alone or kill them?

For a long time, at least fifty years, they were protected in Pennsylvania. I always heard the reason was because they are one of the few animals an unarmed human can kill and eat. I suspect that is an old wives' tale or, in this case, an old hunter's tale.

Then about ten years ago they opened a four-month-long, annual season on them with a limit of three daily.

I will usually let them be when spring gobbler hunting or deer hunting and I usually release them out of traps. I will usually kill them when I come across them while bird hunting with the dogs.

DANG ! I wish I had thought of that !

I traded a fair number of porky skins for quill work from a lady from Ft. Providence NWT. Amazing work. She dyed and wove them on a beading loom mostly or pleated on moccasin vamps. She used the long thin quills from the sides for the loom and thicker ones for the pleating. All on smoke tanned moose and caribou too of course. I killed a few but got most off the road.
When I was a kid with a 22 we'd shoot them wastefully. I don't do that stuff anymore.

Have only seen 2 or 3 in the elk woods above the Joe in n. Idaho in the 44 years here BUT my daughters 2 hounds seem to find them every once in awhile just ask her vet : cry: