This has got to be one of the cutest animals there are, though all baby critters are adorable. It's a porcupine baby, just old enough now to come out of the den by itself and eat from the food dish. This little one's name is "Stormy" because she was born during a typical South Dakota storm, but Keith and I like to call her "Pinecone". That's what she looks like! Porcupines love corn on the cob! They hold the cob in their little paws and nibble off each kernel just like we do. Pa Porcupine can be enticed out of his shelter with a cob. He reaches up and takes it ever so gently and then slowly demolishes it, not letting one kernel escape. Porcupines appear to be all hair and quills and sometimes it is difficult to see their cute little faces—harder yet to get a good picture! They move very, very slowly and make "ummm, ummm" sounds. We love watching them at Bear Country. If you click on the picture you can get a close-up!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Baby Porcupine!
This has got to be one of the cutest animals there are, though all baby critters are adorable. It's a porcupine baby, just old enough now to come out of the den by itself and eat from the food dish. This little one's name is "Stormy" because she was born during a typical South Dakota storm, but Keith and I like to call her "Pinecone". That's what she looks like! Porcupines love corn on the cob! They hold the cob in their little paws and nibble off each kernel just like we do. Pa Porcupine can be enticed out of his shelter with a cob. He reaches up and takes it ever so gently and then slowly demolishes it, not letting one kernel escape. Porcupines appear to be all hair and quills and sometimes it is difficult to see their cute little faces—harder yet to get a good picture! They move very, very slowly and make "ummm, ummm" sounds. We love watching them at Bear Country. If you click on the picture you can get a close-up!
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4 comments:
What a cute little face! You're right about that, I don't think I've seen a porcupine face before... This one looks fuzzy and not "quilly" at all!
You're right—she looks fuzzy because the quills are only across the back, near the tail. The little porky just has long hair in the front and on top that looks a little like quills. And they don't "throw" their quills. You have to be in contact with them to extract them.
So is she/he more fuzzy because of being so young? Do they get more quills as they get older, or do adults only have quills across the back and near the tail, too?
I was wrong in my former post. Porcupines have quills all over their bodies, but mostly on their rumps. The long hairs you see are mostly just hair. The quills are underneath. The baby porcupine looks just like the adults, so I'm guessing she has all the quills, etc. she's going to get.
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