Porkie Den Tour
On this warm March morning, we headed out in search of our
prickly rodent friends. We ventured off
onto some state land, where we knew a porkie den existed, but weren’t sure if
we would actually find one.
We came across this beautiful den within a huge yellow birch tree- there was a lot of scat, and an old ‘trough’ trail, but no one was inside- we knew the critter had to be out and about somewhere.
We
continued on to an area where we saw some fresh sign- there were trees that
were all chewed on, hemlock branches blanketing the ground, along with hundreds
of cashew-shaped porcupine scat. We
looked in every hemlock in the area, and saw nothing. We were just about to leave the area when a
participant spotted the little guy up in a snag tree.
 |
| Can you see him WAAAAY up there? |
Well, that was odd- he’s not up there eating
anything, he must have been in his den and when he heard us climbed up for
safety. We went in to get a closer look
at him. Sure enough, the tree he was on
had a den in it- only it was completely hollowed out.
After admiring the critter for a while, we
left and came back to the Center. Later,
I had a group that came and I took them out to see him. He was no longer in the den tree, but in a
huge maple tree right next to it, way high up.
He just sat up there starting down at us. Such a unique and fun animal J
Licia Johnson, Naturalist
looks like a wonderful outing! i have been observing a porcupine all winter,and he is very entertaining to see what he does.i have noticed he has not gone into a den all winter,even in the most terrible weather.is this normal? iam just waiting for him to get low enough to get some nice pictures.keep up the great blog, shaun kroschel
ReplyDeleteHi Shaun,
DeleteThanks for the comment. It’s not uncommon for a porkie to not go into a designated den site- they will normally find a large hemlock or white pine to stay in-they can be well protected by a dense covering of foliage in these trees. We had a porcupine living across Statehouse Lake- for only one winter a few years ago- he(or she) never had a den, we found that during the night (they are mostly nocturnal) it had gone out and chewed on several maple and aspen trees, but whenever we encountered the critter, it was always up in a huge white pine.
Thanks again!
--Licia Johnson
thanks for the info on the porcupine! they are a neat critter.thanks again shaun kroschel
ReplyDelete