As a child at scout camp, I feared late-night visits to the outhouse. The wood construction was lined in spectacular gnaw marks, left there by a North American porcupine drawn by the salt in urine. Nobody wished to bump right into a quilled rodent.
I by no means noticed one in an outhouse. My porcupine sightings occurred within the forest. All so-called New World porcupines are arboreal, tailored for all times within the timber. In addition they share different traits, like quills blended with gentle hairs.
These gentle hairs may not be instantly obvious with the North American porcupine. However the Mexican dwarf bushy porcupine is, as biologist Vincent Losasso notes, “an fascinating mix of cute and upsetting.”
He continues, “Their little brown eyes, bulbous pink noses and outsized incisors evoke an ‘I need to cuddle that’ feeling, however the brilliant, lengthy yellow spines protruding from beneath their brown fur in seemingly random patches arouse a ‘preserve that factor away from me’ feeling.”
The Mexican bushy dwarf porcupine is much more tailored to life within the cover than the North American porcupine. On land, its moderately gradual. However its prehensile, bare tail permits it to maneuver by means of branches of Central American forests, the place it feeds on seeds, leaves and fruits.
