American Porcupine

About the patient:

This is one of our previous long-term patients, the North American Porcupine!

He was patient number 555 in 2021 and was admitted to our clinic on May 22nd, 2021. This little porcupine was suspected to have been born prematurely and was abandoned by its mother after several attempts to reunite them over a 72 hour period. Without his mother’s care he wouldn’t survive on his own, so he was brought to Calgary Wildlife for around the clock care for four months. After 448 days in care, plenty of nutritious meals, lots of enrichment, and some TLC, on August 13th, 2022 he was cleared to be released to his new home in the wild where he belongs

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North American Porcupines are not currently classed as endangered species though they are often targeted by the timber and agriculture industries, due to certain destructive behaviours they

take part in.

Did you know?

- Porcupines have up to 30,000 quills.

- They cannot shoot their quills.

- Porcupines are good climbers and often climb trees in search of food and sometimes to build nests.

- The word porcupine comes from the middle or old French word Porcespin, which means “spiny pig”.

- Porcupines are part of the Mammalia biological class.

Help us continue to care for injured and orphaned porcupines by donating today!

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