Common porcupine
| Common porcupine | ||||||||||||
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Common porcupine ( Hystrix cristata ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hystrix cristata | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The common porcupine ( Hystrix cristata ), also West African or North African porcupine or comb porcupine , belongs to the porcupine family and thus to the rodents .
Appearance
The common porcupine has a head-trunk length of 57 to 68 cm, but sometimes more than 90 cm. It weighs 17 to 18 kg, in exceptional cases 24 kg.
The typical spiked dress on the top, which is used for self-defense, consists of converted hair and has a wide variety of hair types: soft woolen hair, stiff hair, flat bristles, thick, very elastic, long bristles and rigid, long round skewers. Individual skewers can be up to 40 cm long and 7 mm in diameter. At the tip of the tail there are a number of hollow, capsule-like spines, called "rattle cups", which are shaken when excited, so that a rattling sound is made.
distribution
Despite the second name, West African porcupine, it occurs not only in West Africa, but also on the African Atlantic coast along the Sahara to North Africa and in central and southern Italy as well as Sicily .
Way of life
The common porcupine is nocturnal and behaves little inconspicuously, but snorts and grunts noisily. It spends the day in its underground burrow.
nutrition
The common porcupine mainly eats plants, especially roots, tubers and onions, the fruits of bushes and tree fruits lying on the ground. It doesn't even disdain herbs and tree bark. It preyed on corn on the cob by biting through the stalks in order to get to the ears. It also eats insects , frogs, and other small animals, as well as the bones of fresh carrion.
Reproduction and development
The common porcupine lives in close ties and looks after its young for a long time. Often one finds family groups made up of parents and the boys of the last two litters. After a gestation period of around nine weeks, the common porcupine gives birth to one to four young that still have soft spines. The boys are weaned after two months and sexually mature after a year.
Web links
- Hystrix cristata in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Grubb, 2004. Retrieved on 11 May, 2006.