Where do porcupines live? These prickly representatives of the order of rodents settled all over the world. They can be found in Africa, South and North America, Asian countries and even Europe. Representatives of different continents differ in their appearance and habits. The habitats of the porcupine are usually reflected in the name of the species: South African, Indian, Malay, Javanese, North American.
Prickly Rodent
The main feature of the porcupine is the needles that cover its back. They give the animal a formidable and intimidating appearance, this is precisely the goal that nature pursued when creating this beast. The rodent, whose average weight is about 13 kg and a length of approximately 80 cm, carries up to 30 thousand needles. In places where porcupines live, there used to be legends that animals shoot at the enemy with these poisonous needles. In fact, light, up to 250 grams, the needles are simply lost and fall off whenwalking on rough terrain. Their toxicity is also in doubt, although the injection is quite painful and can cause inflammation in humans.
The porcupine's air-filled quills serve as floats for the porcupine, allowing them to successfully swim. An exotic outfit, donated by nature to the animal for protection, in the human environment has become its enemy. It is because of the colorful and long needles that go to jewelry that these animals are most often exterminated. In Asian countries, porcupine meat is considered a delicacy.
Porcupine habitat
Prickly animals are considered more mountain animals. They can equip long burrows with many corridors in caves, mountain voids, but they also successfully dig themselves. Settlements of some species can be found both in the steppes and in the foothills, but even here they choose places with ravines and slopes.
Porcupine is not a predator. The diet consists of roots, fruits and berries of plants of the area where porcupines live in nature. These vegetarians are not averse to profiting from the fruits of the garden and often raid the farmsteads of peasants. Porcupines climb trees well, are nocturnal, and sleep during the day. Strong teeth allow the rodent to tear off the bark and gnaw on wood, so much so that over the winter it will destroy up to a hundred plantings.
Porcupine crested or crested
This species of echinoderms is the most common and typical, also called Asian. Quite a large representative of its kind. There are males weighing 25-27 kg. Body length - up to a meter, plus 10-15 cm- tail. A beautiful color is the alternation of needles of black-brown and white colors. Where do crested porcupines live? Their distribution covers almost the entire Middle East region to the southernmost regions of China, India, Sri Lanka. It is also found in some countries of Southeast Asia, on the Arabian Peninsula.
Asians eat greens: grass and leaves, they are not averse to dragging gourds, grapes, apples, cucumbers from gardens. Therefore, they settle closer to the cultivated areas. In winter, they switch to tree bark.
Echinoderm Africans
The largest of the African rodents, the South African porcupine reaches 63-80 cm in length and weighs from 1 to 24 kg. It is distinguished by long, up to 50 cm, spines and a white line running along the croup. The needles on the tail are collected in an elegant bun. Where does the porcupine live? Mainland Africa, its southern part, is the birthplace of the animal.
Another representative of this continent is the African brush-tailed porcupine. Its range covers the countries of the central part of the continent and the island of Fernando Po. It is named brush-tailed because of the light hair brush at the end of the bare scaly tail. This echinoderm rodent swims well, in addition to the usual plant food, it also eats small insects.
Indian porcupine
In appearance, this beast looks like an ordinary Asian rodent, has a beautiful black-brown-white color, black head and paws. This is the most unpretentious species of porcupines: animals live in the highlands, and in the forest, andin the steppe regions, and even in semi-deserts. They eat everything vegetable, roots and bulbs. Despite the Indian name, it feels good in the mountains of the Caucasus, Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
Sumatra and Borneo
In the forests and agricultural lands of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, an atypical representative of this family is found: the long-tailed porcupine. Its dissimilarity to its counterparts is manifested in the fact that it has very thin and flexible needles, from a distance similar to thick brown bristles. They are located in the back of the body, closer to the tail. The whole appearance of this porcupine resembles an ordinary large rat. Long-tailed individuals climb trees and shrubs well, love bamboo shoots, fruits, pineapples.
The Sumatran porcupine also lives on the island of Sumatra, which lives only in this place. This animal is relatively smaller than its relatives. The maximum length of the Sumatran endemic is 56 cm, the largest weight is 5.4 kg. Its appearance is similar to a long-tailed one - the same thin needles, more reminiscent of bristles. The coloration is also brown, but the ends of the bristles are white.
Aboriginal of Borneo is the hard-spined porcupine. Its appearance allows us to attribute it to the relatives of the Sumatran representative, but its needles are harder and larger in size. In addition to their usual habitats in forests and mountains, these animals can also be found in cities, where they eat greens and fruits in parks and squares.
Where do porcupines live in America
Needlewools, who live on both American continents,outwardly very similar to their typical tropical relatives, but have a smaller size and weight. This is such a mini-copy of real porcupines, more like a hedgehog. Americans are spiky evenly, without particularly long spines at the back.
North American porcupines live in the USA, Canada. They hid their spines under a thick coat of wool. It is the only species in North America.
The southern continent has a great variety of species. American porcupines are called tree porcupines, they deftly climb trees, some settle down there for permanent residence in nests or hollows. There are species with prehensile tails up to 45 cm long, with which they cling to branches and shrubs.
Are there porcupines in Europe?
Rodents with spines are not typical representatives of the European fauna, but nevertheless, there are places in Europe where porcupines live. In what country did these heat-loving animals find their place? Families of these spine carriers can be found in Greece, Italy, Sicily. Common or crested porcupines have long lived here. Scientists argue about whether the settlement of porcupines in this area was an evolutionary process, or whether they were brought by the ancient Romans, who were great lovers of porcupine meat. On the territory of Russia, crested porcupines can be found in the South-Eastern Caucasus.
