i take it from your response, daniel, that it's not a hedgehog. is it hystrix africaeaustralis? seriously, though, just guessin'. :D
My stumpers are the worst. People always get them too quickly! This porcupine was encountered while driving along the Willow Fishhook / Hatcher Pass Road north of Anchorage in July of last year.
They look quiet different from our echidnas, We see those quiet often here in the bush area. They are amazingly quick when they bury them selves. http://www.gondwananet.com/australian-animals-echidna.html Liz
Thanks for the info on the echidna. He's a cute little guy. A little smaller than our porcupine, I think. Are his spines as sharp and barbed as the porcupine? Thinking if you stepped on one with bare feet whilst he was in the act of burrowing into the ground... I only saw a hedgehog once, many years ago, in an apartment in Rome(!). He fit into the palm of my hand and his spines felt like the end of feather quills. An English friend once told me her local hedgehogs came in from her garden through the catflap to eat the cat chow. How adaptable is that?
That would explain how they were able to negotiate the cat flap. I didn't realise they got so big. Very cute all the same.
The echidna quills I think are short and "fat" and same length all over. Bit like a spiney dome. I don't think you would be walking in barefeet where they live unless you have leather feet. Besides usually too many ants that bite. I am pretty sure echidna would not do the cat food over unless you lived in a true bush shack with very little to no disturbance. They are out in the true bush not cultivated garden areas. But I may be wrong. Liz
Yipes! Forgot about all the things that bite, sting, etc. in Austrailia. Boots for me, the higher the better.
Ah Daniel, love the porcupines! While camping in Red Wood forest in California as a kid, we'd often see them trundling thru the woods. We'd collect quills that we'd find left behind. Amazing to know the American Indians used these extremely hard pieces of hair in their ornamentation of their regalia! Thanx for the wonderful memories
We used to get lots around here. But the only one i have seen recently is a squashed one, on a motorway! Development! :shakes fist:
