Porcupine Facts

About the porcupine

The name covers two separate families. Old World porcupines live in most of Africa, in West and South Asia, and in Italy, staying on the ground and coming out only at night. New World porcupines live in North America and northern South America, climb trees in wooded areas, and some spend their whole lives up there. The New World group is usually smaller and less strict about being nocturnal.

A typical porcupine measures 60 to 90 cm long with a 20 to 25 cm tail and weighs 5 to 16 kg. They are round, bulky and slow, colored in browns, grays and white. The quills work as a warning that says this animal is a bad meal, a strategy called aposematism.

Did you know?

• The largest porcupine is the third biggest rodent alive, after the capybara and the beaver.
• Hedgehogs, echidnas and tenrecs evolved spines on their own, separate from porcupines.
• Old World and New World porcupines look alike but are not closely related.