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

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

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!

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

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

Jack