I'm at a loss. Help me. In the 1960s and 1970s, porcupines were super abundant in Idaho. Now, they're not my favorite critter (their toilets are unwanted in cabins, and they often wreak havoc with dogs). I used to pay for nearly every road trip (including gas and beer money) with guard hair, quills, and claws) with roadkills. There were always dozens of them. I left for nearly 30 years (1981-2008). Porcupines are almost nonexistent now. I have found 19 porcupines in 17 years since my return. What happened to them? Despite driving and walking thousands of miles, now I rarely see them. They were a major part of the surroundings before, and now they're rare. What happened? Just a "normal" fluctuation or what? What're you seeing?


Porcupine skulls were always an added bonus on the trrapline. They were worth 5-7.00 and added up.



Porcupine bacula are not too impressive, but are an interesting little bone nonetheless.



This one shows good guard hair, and claws worth $0.12 each. Every roadkill had over $2.00 worth of claws.



The face only a mother could love. Do you realize, that their cecum to digest bark is so big, that only one of their uterine horns is functioinal, meaning they can only have a single baby? Well, many times I have seen multiple babies. This is because they have a very advanced "babysitting" system developed.



The "business end" of an adult porcupine.

Very cool, careful denigrating the size of one's baculam! Lol

A feared and hated Unique creature.

Fantastic photos

Hey, I wouldn't think of it. After all, his baculum is bigger than mine!

Seem like a normal amount here. I take care of an apple orchard for a hunting club so they are not on my most liked list. But I don;t attack them on the highway either......jk

Cute faces!

That was a great write up and included information that I didn't know about "Quill Pigs". I still see them around here from time to time but they girdle and kill my Soft Maple, Apples and White Pine. When I was a kid, killing them was frowned upon because they were considered the "Lost Man's Food" and could be easily killed in a survival situation. Now that I think of it, I haven't had a Fisher full of quills in quite a few years either.

Living on the edge of several forest biomes i have seen the same decline here. Most of the porkies that I have seen in the last 10 years have been on the flat prairies, not in the aspen parkland or boreal forest. A true tell tale is to come to a burr oak and see multiple twigs on the ground. Somewhere close by is a hole that they go into and come out to feed every other day sometimes 4 day gaps.

ADC guys know that a toilet will attract another porky sometimes even years later.....but they fail to tell the client to clean up the area.

Pete Wise from BC once said to let them swing their tail and after 7-10 swings pick them up by the back feet and make them wheel-barrow walk with their front feet - up a plank and into the truck , and they get a free ride to a distant re-location. And they walk the plank to their new home.

At one time they were seeing what % were sliver and what was yellow guard hairs.

Guard hairs are used on prairie First Nations head dress, I'm sure everyone has seen these

There is still a very healthy population of them in North Central Pennsylvania, pretty much all of northern Pennsylvania.

They are a major PITA to me with the amount of damage they do to my Camp, the surrounding trees and my dogs.

I planted beach saplings along both sides of my driveway at Camp. Apparently the porcupines thought I put them there for their snacking pleasure. They girdled the majority of them two years in a row and I had to replace them. I finally got smart and fabricated these aluminum tubes to put around them.





Every one of my dogs, except the youngest lab, has ended up looking like this over the years of hunting upland game out of camp. And I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until the youngest one gets a face full.



Pennsylvania opened a season on them some years ago. Prior to that they were protected for decades. We kill them every chance we get. Here is one of my hunting buddies with two that he killed at grouse camp last year.



This guy is looking for the porcupine that tail-slapped my yellow lab last week.




We actually processed those two for consumption but chickened out of actually eating them after hearing multiple bad reviews on the quality of the meat.

Their meat makes a great k-9 bait
My population is about what it always was here, low.

I have always pondered the porcupine’s existence. Kill or deform trees? Painfull death for would be predators? Alternative food source for fishers and cats?

Great shots of them, Jack. When I was helping JR last March on his trapline in AK, he caught a porky. Didn't intend to, but since they chew everything, he didnt mind. He made good use of it.

I never see any around here anymore either. Years ago, backpacking in the Bob, staying overnight in a FS cabin, I had an argument with one that wanted to stay inside while I was using it. A broom helped to influence it out onto the porch. Later, just as I was getting to sleep, he began chewing on the door to get back in....ugh....worse than a spoiled child ....

I think the population has declined similarly here, in a similar time frame, I blame lions. In the 70's California stopped hunting lions, and then in the 90's lions became officially protected. There was a huge boom in the lion population, our deer population has been absolutely decimated by the lions, and I assumed the porcupines have gone the same way. But I do see one every now and then:

Gulo, do you think increased predation from cougars could be part of it? I see the same decline in Utah since I was a kid. Cougars gained protection and their populations increased over the same time frame. Also, those who said they still have robust porcupine populations live in states with few if any cougars.

I agree with Robert. Lions love them. Don't see many porkies in my parts any more. Deer either, except in close to the farms and ranches where it is safer.
When California protected the lions and then they became dense, the migration of them invaded Oregon. What did ODFW do about it? Made them a big.game animal and protected them. Why? To sell tags and regulate people. Our wild deer herds are mostly gone except for the domesticated ones. But, they can now say they have at least one big game animal that is doing well.

Development, drought, fire ??

You beat me to it Robert. Like minds. I believe there was a bounty on cougars when i was a kid. Since they were classified as a game animal they have managed them to maintain healthy populations here.

Last time we did porcupines, we collectively came to the same conclusion; that it was probably lion predation that has made porkies decline. It makes sense to me. We are over-run here with lions, and very few porkies. Thanks, all.

Yes for some reason they where protected year around in PA until about a dozen years ago I did some deer bear and turkey hunting during the1980's and 199'0s and they where hard on the trees And pressure treated lumber must be like crack cocaine to them Once they started on some ones deck or outbuilding it was as good as gone I try not to question God'sj judgment when it comes to his creation But like the possum i think it is possible that he has bad days also But some good info t o know And I certainly feel bad for all the dogs that are shown Years ago there where scents made to train dogs from running deer I wonder if anyone ever tried to make a training scent to break dogs from going after pipines I would bet if i worked it would make some one very rich
Another very good thread

Been decades since I've seen or heard on any around here. Have eaten them, fine if you don't have anything else to eat but will cross it off of my list of having tried it.

I was thinking the same thing.

But,but,but, we don’t got lions, or at least the Dnr says we don’t. But we have lots on bobcats. I would buy into the cat theory since they outcompeted fishers and pushed them south in WI. I read the other day that cats have no fear of snakes because they’re reflexes are faster than a snake can strike.

I don’t see them in western Oregon anymore, or very few. I used to see them all the time. Cougars are over abundant here too

wws

Resurfaced this thread; one of the most interesting designs is Quills made into " rosette flower designs" some are dyed and make for some very nice art work. It is a big ticket selling item in Churchill Manitoba especially when the polar bear tours are on.
Is it a northern First Nations or Inuit regular item ?
salted dried fully quilled hides do fetch a fair price with proper permits

I used to collect and sell quills from roadkills. They sat on the passenger-side floor beside my beer while wife drove (and she watched for more porkies). I'd hit them repeatedly with a piece of closed-cell foam, then pull the quills out of the foam. Every porky generally had at least an ounce of guard hair and an ounce of quills.

Jack

Back in the 70's and 80's NewHouse114 and I on our outdoor wanderings often stopped to pluck guard hair from road hits. Haven't seen a road hit porky for many many years now..

Plenty still in Alaska. We don't have lions!!!