Where do porcupines live? These spiky representatives of the rodent squad settled around the world. They can be found in Africa, in South and North America, Asian countries and even in Europe. Representatives of different continents differ in their appearance and habits. Porcupine habitats are reflected, as a rule, in the name of the species: South African, Indian, Malay, Javanese, North American.
Prickly rodent
The main feature of the porcupine is the needles with which its back is covered. They give the animal a formidable and awesome look, it was this goal that nature pursued when creating this beast. The rodent, whose average weight is about 13 kg and a length of about 80 cm, wears up to 30 thousand needles. In the places where porcupines live, there used to be legends that the animals shoot at the enemy with these poisonous needles. In fact, light, up to 250 grams, needles are simply lost and fall off when walking over rough terrain. Their toxicity is also in great doubt, although the injection is quite painful and can cause inflammation in humans.
Needles filled with air serve as porcupine floats, which allows them to swim successfully. An exotic outfit gifted by nature to the beast 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
Thorny animals are considered more mountain animals. They can equip long burrows with many corridors in caves and mountain cavities, 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 does not belong to predators. The diet consists of roots, fruits and berries of plants of the area where porcupines live in nature. These vegetarians are not averse to profit from the garden and often raid the farmsteads of the peasants. Porcupines climb trees well, lead a nocturnal lifestyle, and sleep during the day. Strong teeth allow the rodent to tear off the bark and gnaw the wood, so much so that in the winter up to a hundred plantings will destroy it.
Crested porcupine, or crested
This species of echinoderms is the most common and typical, also called Asian. Quite a large representative of a kind. There are males weighing 25-27 kg. The length of the body is up to a meter, plus 10-15 cm is the tail. A beautiful color is the alternation of needles in black-brown and white. 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 feed on greens: grass and leaves, do not mind dragging melons, grapes, apples, cucumbers from the gardens. Therefore, they settle closer to the cultivated area. In winter, they switch to tree bark.
Echinoderms 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 differs in long, up to 50 cm, spines and a white line running along the croup. The needles on the tail are gathered in an elegant bundle. Where does porcupine live? Mainland Africa, its southern part, is the birthplace of the animal.
Another representative of this continent is the African carp-tailed porcupine. Its range captures the countries of the central part of the continent and the island of Fernando Po. It is called a ponytail because of a light hair brush at the end of a naked scaly tail. This echinoderm rodent swims well, in addition to the usual plant foods and eats small insects.
Indian porcupine
In appearance, this beast looks like an ordinary Asian rodent, has a beautiful black-brown-white color, a black head and legs. This is the most unpretentious species of porcupines: animals live in the highlands, and in the forest, and in 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, in 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: long-tailed porcupine. His dissimilarity to his brethren is manifested in the fact that he has needles very thin and flexible, from a distance similar to thick brown bristles. They are placed 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.
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. His appearance is similar to a long-tailed one - the same thin needles, more reminiscent of stubble. The color is also brown, but the ends of the bristles are white.
Aboriginal Borneo considered porcupine stiff-needle. His appearance allows him to be attributed to the relatives of the Sumatran representative, but his needles are firmer and larger. In addition to the usual habitats in forests and mountain ranges, these animals can be found in cities where they eat greens and fruits in parks and squares.
Where porcupines live in America
The iglooshersts, who live on both American continents, are very similar in appearance to their typical tropical relatives, but are smaller and smaller. This is such a mini-copy of real porcupines, more reminiscent of a hedgehog. Americans are covered with spines evenly, do not have particularly long needles in the back.
North American porcupines live in the United States and Canada. They hid their thorns under a thick coat of wool. This is the only species in North America.
The southern continent has a great species diversity. American porcupines are called arboreal, they cleverly climb trees, some settle there permanently in nests or hollows. There are species with tenacious tails up to 45 cm long, by which they cling to branches and shrubs.
