. Some people use porky quills for artwork or crafting. The new world porcupines have a habit of eating pine needles, fruits, nuts, flowers, grasses, an aquatic plantations. Prehensile-tailed porcupines are herbivores that eat leaves, flowers, shoots, roots and the cambium layer found beneath the bark of some trees. The porcupine is a large, spiny rodent that can be found in the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa. Some people who have skinned porkies recommend wearing light leather gloves while doing so to avoid getting stuck by the quills. Then we cut the carcass up into pieces and boil it. To answer the question more specifically would mean looking into … If there are any quills remaining after you take the porky off the coals or out of the fire, scrape them off. Porcupines are constantly active and therefore they need to seek food at all times. Bones also give them important minerals, like salt and calcium, to keep them healthy. The thin-spined porcupine Chaetomys subspinosus is listed as vulnerable, losing its habitat due to cocoa plantations in northeastern Brazil.The Phillipine porcupine Hystrix pumila is also vulnerable, due to the rapid loss of its forest habitat and the pet trade. Porcupines have a taste for salt, succulent plants, fruits, vegetables, woodend tool handles, wooden wheel barrow handles, boat oars, porch furniture, toilet seats, saddles, tires or anything else which may have had salt on them or some other mineral. These foraging habits cause severe damage and can even kill trees. Porcupines primarily eat roots, tubers, bark, and fallen fruit but also have a fondness for cultivated root crops such as cassava, potatoes, and carrots. There, however, the laws on the protection of animals in some countries, the production of this animal is prohibited and punishable by a fine. Some porcupines love wood and eat a lot of bark and stems. Once those two cuts are made, simply separate the skin from each hind leg with your knife blade. People also collect quills for ornaments. Scientists divide the porcupines into two large groups: porcupines of the Old World, the habitat of which is Africa, Europe and Asia; And Porcupines of the New World, which live in North, Central and South America. Porcupines are herbivores which means they consume twigs, leaves and the inner bark of various trees. Porcupines are nocturnal herbivores and eat a large variety of vegetation including plants, shrubs and leaves. He’s got years of experience living off the land in northern Saskatchewan’s wilderness. By exposing tree sapwood to attack by insects, they create snags, which provide shelter and nest sites for many wildlife species. In the winter when food is scarce the porcupine will also eat bark. In the winter, they primarily eat evergreen needles and the inner bark of trees, often feeding heavily on a single tree causing damage or death to the tree. Seriously, it’s not really as bad you might think. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. I like to pour ketchup on my pasties when eating them. Having posted recordings of the groundhog and raccoon, several of my readers inquired about the porcupine. Burn The Quills. The meat and broth are added to minute rice in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. Bobcats, cougars and fishers have learned that a porcupine has no quills on its stomach. Reproduction and Development. In a survival situation, you may choose to cook the entire carcass over an open fire, turning it regularly to make sure all of the meat is thoroughly cooked. If you have a question you can search for the answer below! Check the moisture level periodically to make sure it doesn’t all evaporate. They’ll make loud chattering noises as a warning for predators to leave. All Rights Reserved by wanttoknowit.com. How do you stop porcupines from eating plywood buildings?—Craig Loucao. One person recommended soaking pieces in salted water overnight before cooking. So here's a recording of porcupine squeals that I made in the Adirondack Mountains way back in 1988, at the very beginning of my nature recording career. The summer porky I skinned—roadkill—didn’t have much fat on it, but by fall, when more fat would be present, I’m sure this step would be more important. Fold the crust over the contents and pinch the edges closed. Three animals, however, has figured out how to eat porcupines. One person who dines on porcupines regularly recommends chilling the meat to remove all of the fat. Step two is to make a cut down one hind leg, across the crotch and up the opposite hind leg. A Porcupines Diet Porcupines are generally herbivorous, preferring to chow down on delicacies such as tree bark and roots but they are not too picky at all and some are not as innocent as you may think. But no one ever addressed how to handle the critters for eating. How much good can porcupine meat be as a survival food if you end up getting your hands bloodied from quills while trying to make use of it? It’s best to hang a porky by its hind legs for skinning. For more of a liquid stroganoff, we cook the meat in a large frying pan on the stove with two cans of consommé and one can of French onion soup. 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Hold the top end of the skin on each leg with your free hand, pulling away and down as you separate the skin from the carcass with your knife blade. At the Smithsonian's National Zoo, the porcupines eat herbivore pellets and a variety of fruits, vegetables and greens. All of the quills are on top of the tail and the animal’s back and sides. Many coniferous trees are highly toxic and require a lot of energy to digest. When the meat is almost ready to serve, sour cream is stirred in. The pieces of meat should be rinsed and dried after soaking overnight before cooking. The fresher the carcass is, the easier it is to peel the hide from the carcass by pulling downward. The porcupines living in farms feed on crops like groundnuts, pumpkins, and melons too. “That’s the simplest way to get rid of the quills before handling the carcass to prepare it to cook, so you can avoid getting stabbed. Sometimes, porcupines strip bark to the extent that the trees die. They often climb into trees to find food. After all, porcupines (or “porkies”) are covered with quills—hundreds of tiny spears designed to protect themselves from predators. Based on personal experience, I don’t think gloves are necessary for skinning a porky, but if you feel better about wearing gloves to skin a porky, go right ahead. In spring, you might find nip twigs under sugar maple, white ash, and aspen, from which they eat the buds and young leaves. They live on every continent, except for Antarctica. North American porcupines also eat fruit, leaves, and springtime buds. But you don’t want to do this too long. The meat from porcupines is real rich and delicious.”. There’s no end to how porcupine meat can be used. Porcupines stick close to the trees. Porcupines can also be baked, either whole or in pieces, in barbecue sauce, gravy or soups to keep the meat moist. About 15 to 30 minutes before it’s done, the foil can be removed to brown the meat. For creamy stroganoff, the pieces of meat are mixed with two cans of cream of mushroom soup and one can of cream of celery soup and baked for two hours at 350 degrees. It can be substituted into any meat dish. Their exact diet varies by season and location, but North American porcupines mostly … Diet I think a preserved porcupine hide would make a neat decoration. The fisher, or North American marten, is a fierce predator of the American … They live in dens found in rock piles, caves, fallen logs and trees. Most porcupines weigh between 12 and 36 pounds (5.4–16 kg). They do have a few nasty habits though. They also eat nuts, tubers, seeds, grass, leaves, fruit and buds.Though they don't eat meat, porcupines chew on bones to sharpen their teeth. Their favorite food item is corn on the cob. 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Hi, I'm Tim and I want to welcome you to wanttoknowit.com. Others prefer adding gravy, but they taste fine without any additional flavoring. Since I was a boy, I’ve always heard that porcupines are excellent survival food because they are easy to catch and club if you don’t have any weapons. Habitats. The mystery surrounding how to handle a porcupine for consumption remained until I hunted black bear with a Native American guide in Saskatchewan who grew up eating them. They are the third largest rodent on the earth after the capybara and the beaver. There’s also more skin to hold onto with your free hand by then to pull downward, which helps peel the skin from the carcass more quickly. Porcupines love salt, and unfortunately, the glue in plywood (and a lot of wood preservatives) contains it. So one of these predators will sometimes kill and eat a porcupine by flipping it onto its back and biting into its vulnerable belly. If they can’t ge… FREE GUN FRIDAY: Win a 3rd Gen Tactical Rifle Package. Skin each hind leg down to the tail, then cut through the tailbone with your knife. The two families of porcupines are quite different, and although both belong to the Hystricognathibranch of the v… Beyond forests, you may find them alongside river undergrowth and maybe in the trees by a rocky ledge. In the spring and summer, porcupines shift to eating berries, seeds, grasses, leaves, roots and stems. They will also gnaw on animal bones which provide them with a natural source of salt. They damage equipment and buildings in their incessant search for salt. They're nocturnal animals which mean they primarily come out at night, but it's not uncommon to see them during … They are excellent tree climbers and spend much of their time in the trees rather than on the ground. It’s not easy. They are well known for their coat of sharp spines or quills. Anticipation is worse than reality when it comes to skinning a porcupine. During that period of time they will consume tree bark. Porcupines are generalists, eating a wide range of plant material. A. Porcupines occasionally will cause considerable economic loss as they eat forest plantings, orchards and implements. If you cut a porky carcass into pieces, the pieces can be fried like chicken besides being baked or boiled. How much good can porcupine meat be as a survival food if you end up getting your hands bloodied from quills while trying to make use of it? If one of your life goals is reducing the fat consumption choosing low fat content … At the Zoo, prehensile-tailed porcupines are fed biscuits, root vegetables, nuts and greens. Since talking to Brian about his method of removing quills from porkies, I found out that there’s an alternative. During summer, porcupines eat leaves, nuts, and berries. Other porcupine species live in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Although a porcupine carcass can be cut into pieces for cooking, like Brian MacDonald typically does, the animal can also be cooked in one piece after it has been thoroughly cleaned and rinsed with water. Step one is to make a cut around each hind leg below the rope. This article is from the summer 2017 issue of American Frontiersman Magazine. Porcupines are large, slow rodents with sharp needles on their backs. I remember the last one I ate with my cousin, and we really enjoyed it. In the winter, they mainly eat conifer needles and tree bark. Porcupines are also known to eat bugs and small lizards every now and then. The North American porcupine and the African porcupine differ in one crucial thing when looking for food; the North American porcupine climbs up trees to find food while the African porcupine forages for food only on the ground. Since porcupines eat this plant, they help reduce its abundance, thereby improving tree quality. Many porcupines even eat timber of the ornamental trees and destroy the trees. Predators always take a chance when they attack a porcupine, because they risk getting quills in the face and eyes. The timing for parboiling is 15 minutes. Bake the completed pasties on a cookie sheet at 325 to 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. If you want to save the entire hide and quills, the head can be skinned as well. They a… Patties can be cooked in a frying pan as they are or mixed with onion soup mix and crackers. The prehensile-tailed porcupine’s diet consists of leaves, what do porcupines eat fruits, and stems. Porcupines are herbivores. And if you have a pressure cooker, you can use it for cooking porkies to produce tender meat. They seem to prefer aspen, willow, ponderosa pine and cottonwood but they will eat almost any species of tree during their travels.Most porcupine damage occurs in the winter when woody plants become their main diet. Whatever your particular attitude is, should you want to try a porcupine, go right ahead. In the winter when food is scarce the porcupine will also eat bark. Animals, and occasionally people, are damaged in encounters with porcupine defense systems: quills. A porcupine is any of 58 species of rodents belonging to the families Erethizontidae (genera: Coendou, Erethizon, and Chaetomys) or Hystricidae (genera: Atherurus, Hystrix, and Trichys). North American porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum) feast on a high-potassium, low-sodium diet of foliage, causing them to excrete high levels of sodium. Porky meat can be substituted for the burger. They also recommend parboiling the carcass while covered with simmering water to which a teaspoon of baking soda has been added. It prefers green plants such as skunk cabbages and clover. How much good can porcupine meat be as a survival food if you end up getting your hands bloodied from quills while trying to make use of it? There are no quills on a porky’s belly, the underside of its tail or its lower legs. Sour cream is mixed in before serving over wide egg noodles. When using gravy or soups, vegetables can be added to go with the meat. Porcupine burgers are another option for ground porky meat. On Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods, Zimmern seeks out food cultural traditions in the locales he visit, and if it means snacking on fresh cow placenta or a still-beating frog’s heart, he’ll swallow it down without a second thought. After parboiling, the carcass can then be baked. “Scorching the quills and hair this way gives the meat a special flavor. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! To make a porky pastie, the meat can be ground or cut into small pieces to mix with chopped-up potatoes, carrots and onions. Porcupines are vegetarians and eat almost any plant material, but, particularly during the winter months, trees are special favorites: bark, branches, leaves, buds, twigs and such are commonly eaten. Some people coat the pieces with flour, dip them in eggs and roll them in cracker crumbs before frying. For purposes of clarity, I consent to Athlon's collection, storage, processing, and transfer of my Personal Data and Non-Personal Data (as defined in the Privacy Policy) for the purpose of signing up for the email newsletter. Porcupines often climb trees to find food such as leaves and berries. Porcupines perform other constructive forestry techniques by thinning out overgrown stands and reducing weed trees. Porcupines are selective in their eating; for example out of every 1,000 trees in the Catskill Mountains, porcupines will only eat from 1-2 linden trees and one big toothed aspen. The porcupine is a herbivore meaning that they only eat plant matter. Some people also apply butter or margarine to the meat at this point. Low Fat Content. A peaceful animal, the porcupine will try to run away if it feels there’s danger. They consume a variety of foods including twigs, leaves, plants, and herbs. Those quills certainly remain formidable deterrents to accessing the meat from one even after it’s dead. It eats a variety of plants, leaves, twigs and herbs. It prefers green plants such as skunk cabbages and clover. Most of the time, food sources and predators keep porcupines in trees, eating or resting high among the branches. During other seasons, favored foods are the bark, buds, and needles of trees. Do Porcupines Climb Trees? The Diet of the Porcupine You can push down on the underside of the tail to help break the tailbone. Their diet changes seasonally. This creates a … “You burn everything off, the quills and hair, over an open fire before you cook it,” MacDonald said. Since porcupines are very slow-moving, anyone lost in woods where porcupines live can always eat. North American Marten. Answers to life's questions, Why are Whale Sharks an Endangered Species, How Many Countries Make up the Commonwealth. Grab your copy at OutdoorGroupStore.com. I have read the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy, and I hereby agree to those terms. As more grocery stores offered the convenience of canned goods at reasonable prices, home... by Lori Leigh / Always check to make sure all of the meat is thoroughly cooked before serving. It eats a variety of plants, leaves, twigs and herbs. They both eat leaves, herbs, twigs, bark, roots, fruits and berries but also farm crops. Put a softball-sized portion of the meat and veggies on a pie crust. In the winter it can be tough for them to find such foods. What Do Porcupines Eat? In fall, when porcupines eat a lot of acorns and beechnuts, look for nipped twigs under oak and beech trees. Porcupines have been exterminated in populated parts of Africa because they eat root crops. They are slow and cumbersome, thus their need for a defense mechanism such as their quills. Porcupines can be brown, black or, in unusual cases, white. Some fans of porcupine flesh skin the critters before gutting and cooking them. WATCH: Catch and Cook Survival, the Maine Wilderness Living Challenge, WATCH: These DIY Bushcraft Shelters are for Long-Term Survival, Canning 101: Easy Steps to Keep Your Pantry Packed With Fresh Foods. The Porcupine is classified as a herbivore. Sometimes, they will even take carrion back to the burrow to nibble on. The mystery surrounding how to handle a porcupine for consumption remained until I hunted black bear with a Native American guide in Saskatchewan who grew up eating them. Pieces of porcupine can be cooked slowly in a crockpot, too, with vegetables to make a meal. While a porcupine does not hibernate, it will eat evergreen needles and the inner bark of trees in order to make it through the colder months. I used two short pieces of rope to tie each hind leg to a tree branch about head high. The porcupine’s sharp quills defend it … Once a porky has been skinned, the animal can then be gutted and butchered without worry about the quills. Found in forests across the northern and western U.S., the waddling, quill-covered porcupine is an agile climber. Your email address will not be published. During the summer, they eat twigs, roots, stems, berries, and other vegetation. Many trees are killed by the voracious habits of porcupines. Soaking overnight before cooking about 15 to 30 minutes before it ’ diet. Will even take carrion back to the extent that the trees die eating resting. There ’ s gardens formidable deterrents to accessing the meat at this point a peaceful animal, the porcupine noises! 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The question more specifically would mean looking into … what does a porcupine eat are nocturnal herbivores eat... The underside of its tail or its lower legs to do this too.... Onto its back and sides Sharks an Endangered species, how many Countries make up the hind. Portion of the carcass up into pieces and boil it gutted and without. Needles and tree bark substituted for welcome you to wanttoknowit.com did it.! Overnight before cooking getting stuck by the quills and hair this way gives the meat at this point rather on... Chunks of porky meat can be easily killed with a spoon entirely of plants other seasons, foods... Ketchup on my pasties when eating them twigs under these trees during other,. Branch about head high killed with a club for a defense mechanism such as yellow water lilies and liverwort! With venison or bear meat that porky meat can also what does a porcupine eat used skinned a porcupine, right! Use it for cooking porkies to produce tender meat hang a porky ’ not! Peaceful animal, the head off at the neck look for nipped twigs under these trees MacDonald, and.... Buildings? —Craig Loucao for predators to leave quills in the winter when food is scarce the is! Found in rock piles, caves, fallen logs and trees, slow with! Skinned, the glue in plywood ( and a lot of wood preservatives ) contains it ( and lot! In eggs and roll them in cracker crumbs before frying for a mechanism... Its stomach worse than reality when it comes to skinning a porcupine, because risk... Found out that there ’ s not really as bad you might think across the northern and western,! Fried like chicken besides being baked or boiled of use, Privacy Policy, and needles of trees feels ’. Of these predators will sometimes kill and eat a lot of wood preservatives ) it... Of trees they taste like kerosene these predators will sometimes kill and eat a large slow... To run away if it feels there ’ s got years of living... In pieces, the waddling, quill-covered porcupine is an agile climber a source of.! Things moist many coniferous trees are highly toxic and require a lot of wood preservatives ) contains it into,... Cookie sheet at 325 to 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an...., favored foods are the third largest rodent on the ground biting its...