Yeah, Jack must be losing his mind. He's already done a porcupine Photo Phriday. Well, bear with me, Trappermen (and women).

In my youth, porcupines were everywhere. Driving almost anywhere, if it was more than a few miles, you could easily pay for gas and beer by picking up roadkilled porkies and salvaging the guard hair, the quills, and the claws. Every porky was worth at least $20. Those days have gone by, at least in Idaho. I've been back 15 years now, and I note every porcupine I see, whether alive or dead in the road. I've documented 17, about 1 per year. What's happened? Are you guys in other places seeing them? Are you guys in the intermountain west seeing very few? Help me out here guys! What about you Alaskans?

I see a few around here but they get hard on my White Pine trees and girdle them bad, especially in the winter.

Never see them around here anymore. I was always taught not to shoot them because they would be an easy source of food for someone that was lost or stuck in the mountains. Not sure why they disappeared, maybe too many lions. Hardly any roads around here so I wouldn’t think they got shot out.

Has the fisher population gone up in the area where the porky population has declined?

Jack. Always love your subjects no matter if they are a repeat or not.

It's like a good movie or a meal of perfect spaghetti ...you never tire of it

The last porky I saw was in the Bob , on a two week backpack trip to my base camp destination, at my favorite place, "the Wall" , known to us locals . One of those nights I spent in a forest service cabin. A nice shared agreement with rangers and those who use the backcountry. IF a cabin is not in use, it remains unlocked and welcome for anyone to take shelter overnight. Leaving it as nice as they found it. Somehow, the rustic door was not shut totally, and upon entry, as I was sweeping and cleaning a bit, a fat wee porky emerged from under shelving . Ushering him out the door, he complained and braced against the broom I was using to influence him out. Finally, getting him outside, I settled in for a nice cabin evening. Later in the night, I awoke to scratching sounds, chewing on the door. The brat was back and demanding to be let in. I got up, brandishing my dreaded broom, and told him, " you must have mistaken yourself for a pet!" I am not beyond befriending some smaller critters as semi-pets....but not this one. Bumping him off the porch, he chattered and squeaked in irritation, lol. He finally left me alone to rest in peace.

I have not seen any in this area in a long time.

Here is my one and only contribution to the porky subject. This one is being a brat too.

That thought crossed my mind, wetdog. In northern Idaho, fisher have become commonplace, but from the Salmon River south, virtually no fishers. I did necropsies on 25 fisher a couple years ago that trappers had turned in to F&G. No evidence of porcupines in the GI tracts. I would be inclined to agree with Elkguy, in that lions are very common these days. In the early 1970s, Idaho made them game animals rather than "predators", which I think has led to much higher populations. It's neat to see Elkguy coming up with the same theory.

Jack

I am not an expert on the population of the p-pine in PA currently But 20 years ago the northern half of PA had a very large number of them . They can be quite destructive around cabins and outbuildings . The fisher has been introduced in the 1980's and has grown to the point that PA has a limitid trapping season for fisher today We as trappers promote maintaining healthy and natural population control of the native wildlife the . So if the fisher population has brought about the reduction of the p-pine
that proves that Natue's is still working We do not always like the results of how nature inserts population control on wildlife but is still the way it works For example the much lower wild furbearer prices have reduced the amount of trapping in the US ansd Canada As a result the pressure on ground nesting increases to the point that many og the ground nesting game bird populations have suffered a noticeable loss. As a pheasant and duck hunter I do not like that loss .But as a trapper I certainly do not want the fox and coyote population to be extinct either Anyway even if this is a repeat of a previous posting I had not seen the firs one Thanks for posting about another subject that generally get's very little attention

I see a handful of porcupines each year and a lot more sign the last few years of porcupines in the area.

I’d still like to know if a dead porcupine or a live one is more beneficial.

Very rare around here,but the odd one.
I suppose fisher find them even though there arent many,since most fisher have a small quill or two under the saddle when fleshing.
Wolves kill any they come across.
Are there more wolves in your area now than before?

Boco -

Thirty-five wolves were transplanted into Idaho and Wyoming in 1995 and 1996. Numbers have grown almost exponentially since that time. I think, however, that porky populations declined well before that. The abundance of both predators (lions and wolves) may be keeping porcupines from rebounding. On the other hand, wolves have not gotten well-established south of the Snake River plains, and I've not heard of many porcupines down there either. However, there are plenty of lions.

Jack

Back about 1995 I shot three in one night chewing on my porch. I haven't seen one since.

Clearly then, their demise is due to predation; lions in this country, white17 in Alaska.



Before that time, were they relatively common?

I used to see them pretty regular in evenings on Noir Hill Road. About 1998 or 1989. I'd see them on Farewell burn when looking for moose sheds about 1992 or so, and then again about 1995.

Our porcupine numbers have significantly decreased. Twenty five years ago they were everywhere, you couldn't drive very far without seeing them alive or dead. Parking equipment in the bush over the weekend you had to wrap it with chicken wire to keep the porcupines from eating the rubber like hoses and crapping all over.

Now it's been several years since I have seen a track! WE do have fishers which I have caught on my trapline but not many which are protected now.

Are you in southern B.C.? Do you have an influx of lions concurrent with the decline in porky's?

Jack

I actually see more porkies now than when I was younger.
I even catch a few in in my fisher sets. I don't have the western ones with the long hairs.

But I still make money on them

I feel the population has declined some in ND since I have been here too. One thing they seem to do is migrate to the sunflower fields, along with everything else. They hang out in the cattails and often use holes in the ground. I would guess most livestock owners kill everyone they see.

Mea culpa !


I'll bet they are more prevalent up near the mouth of the Dillinger where all those bulls seem to shed.

I had one take up residence in a fifty-five gallon steel drum adjacent to my cabin last winter. They seem to enjoy using their own droppings as bedding material. Most people around here shoot every one they see. I leave them alone just as long as they aren't gnawing on something of value to me.

I agree Jack. I hardly ever see one and the only roadkill I see is in Washington when going to see the kids and grandkids in Seattle. When I was about 10 or 11 it was my cousin and my job to keep them out of my grandparents apple trees in the fall. One of us held the light and the other was the shooter using a single shot 16 gauge shotgun. We killed several every year. We don't have fisher in the Selkirks but do have lions but with hound hunting quite popular I don't know if there is any more then there used to be. I blame the population decline on the increase in the human population here and most people shoot them to protect their domestic animals. Nothing like wrestling a 1000 pound steer with a face full of quills.

I fixed it for you old man.

Lots of comedians out of work these days !

Originally Posted by white17
Back about 1795 I charged my ox babe and ran over three in one night chewing on my wooden leg. I haven't seen one since.

That just shows your barbarian nature. You value your life and property over that of innocent forest creatures. You single handedly extirpated (what you wanna bet they have to google that one) porkys from your neighborhood. I sure hope don't no Ivory Billed Woodpeckers start in on your mail box post.

Have them at my ex camp upstate NY, They like to live under the exposed escarpment on the ridges, don't know how they're doing lately...

Found a roadkill one once and brought it back to the Island, where there's never been a porcupine, and put it in the road... I'm sure there was some confused folks, lol

Porcupines were protected for thirty years prior to 2011 in Pennsylvania. that year our Game Commission opened a season on them. Beginning in 1994 fishers were reintroduced into PA. Neither of these events seems to have had much of an impact on the local porky population in north-central PA.

Everyone of my hunting dogs has received at least one face full of quills. They have killed a dozen hemlocks on my property by nipping off the ends of branches over winter. The do it year after year until the tree finally succumbs. They girdle and kill the beech trees I planted along my driveway, I finally had to put ugly aluminum tubes around them to keep the porkies off. They are a real nuisance.

They are non-existant in southeast PA where I live.

Ever heard the line, "up crap creek without a paddle?

well I think I discovered the source of that fabled creek:



It's a porcupine den I found years ago. They sure do crap a lot!

We pick up a few, but nothing like 9-10 years ago.

following^^^

Wow

Jack, if I trap river bottoms I’ll catch 8 or 10 a season here. They’re all over the place it seems.

I see porcupines out in the sagebrush riparian areas. I cannot remember seeing one dead or alive in the forest areas since I’ve been down here. The manager of the university forest used to have a six pack bounty on them when I was up in Moscow.
They are fun to harvest with kids in the winter with kids along the snake river.

We saw one this summer crosing the road

I have a long history with Porkies. It hasn't always been an affectionate history, although I have never been a "shoot on sight" porky assassin, being rather fond of them actually. The old photo is well over 50 years old. This runt porky was a pet of mine. The 4 on the tailgat were foes of the All Purpose Boy that he whacked. I had him save them so I could butcher them to eat. The single porky was kilt recently by yours truly.....the last photo is why. That is the door jamb of my pole barn!

Excellent J.Morse. Thanks for contributing. Are porky numbers stable the past decade or two?

I have adopted a shoot on sight practice with porkies. We have plenty of them. When I was cruising timber I would shoot about 20 every winter. Probably 10% I first noticed with my nose, the rest were typically the obvious ball of an animal up a tree.

Jack, in my part of the state they are doing well, at least I have not noticed an appreciable drop in numbers. I have always been dumbfounded that porcupines do as well as they do, at least in the Great Lakes area. They are not at all prolific breeders, are slow and appear dim-witted as heck, plus, every nimrod in creation usually blasts them out of the tree at every opportunity. The poor things usually don't stand a chance. Even though I've pulled hundreds of quills from my own mutts muzzles over the years, I rarely bother them myself, although I do eat an occasional one in the fall after they've eaten greenery all summer. Well, and then there is those, like the culprit shown above, that gnaw my stuff......curtains for them too.

I'm in Northwest BC, just south of the panhandle. We have cats but very few and very few deer.