Animals / Mammal

North American porcupine

Erethizon dorsatus · Erethizontidae

The North American porcupine, also known as the Canadian porcupine, is a large quill-covered rodent in the New World porcupine family. It is the second largest rodent in North America after the North American beaver. The porcupine is a caviomorph rodent whose ancestors were believed to have crossed the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil 30 million years ago, and then migrated to North America during the Great American Interchange after the Isthmus of Panama rose 3 million years ago.

Where the North American porcupine lives

Recorded in United States of America and Canada (North America).

Most records fall in Ontario, Texas, Alberta, Maine, Michigan and New Hampshire.

See the North American porcupine’s range on the globe

Conservation status

Least concern (LC). Not at risk: it is doing well in the wild. Categories are the IUCN Red List as republished by GBIF.

Sources

The range is a density of 26,192 georeferenced GBIF records, not an expert-drawn map. Description from Wikipedia.