A new addition to my series of gripping, action-packed films of porcupines in trees chewing and moving slowly about. This one’s kind of shaky (I forgot the tripod), but the view is novel — almost straight up. Here are the two earlier videos with links to the original posts where I blogged about them:
Blogged on Nov. 25, 2008: “Porcupine in a Tree.”
Blogged on January 22, 2009: “Hemlock for lunch.” That’s the best film in the bunch.
Those were probably both the same animal, my downstairs neighbor in the crawlspace under the house. I haven’t determined yet whether this new porcupine also lives under the house, but it’s very likely.
Thanks for posting these videos. I’ve never seen a porcupine ‘in person’. My first thought in the first few seconds of most recent video was, “That is one strange animal”. Then I read your blog post accompanying the Hemlock video and decided that my first impression was correct. I hope I have the chance for a ‘not too close’ encounter someday.
They’re kind of cute in a bizarre way (there are some adorable videos on YouTube of pet porcupines acting affectionate), but you’re right, they are strange. However, they pose little threat (except to too-inquisitive dogs), so if you ever have a close encounter, treasure it. My mother once had a near-sighted porcupine bump into her — she was crouched down in the middle of a trail looking at something with her hand lens, and a porkie waddled up and literally crashed into her butt with its nose. She yelled, turned around, and they both back-pedaled — the porcupine more rapidly than her — with no further mishaps.
I agree that they are rather cute and I’m glad to know that they are not aggressive. Love the story of your mom’s close encounter—quite the surprise for them both.