
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Porcupines are prickly and often misunderstood creaturesāget the facts.
Could a porcupine make a good pet? Do they ever stick themselves or other porcupines with their quills? In this latest addition to the Animal Answer Guide series, we learn about these mysterious animals' "pincushion defense," along with the following facts:
⢠Porcupines survive on a diet of leaves, bark, and fruit
⢠Quills are actually modified hairs
⢠There are 26 species of porcupines (and counting)
⢠Old World and New World porcupines have a common ancestor but evolved independently
⢠New World males will gather to fight ferociously over a single female
Porcupines: The Animal Answer Guide presents solid, current science in the field of porcupine biology. Uldis Roze compares and contrasts porcupines in terms of body plan, behavior, ecology, reproduction, and evolutionary relationships. He examines the diversity of porcupines from around the worldāfrom North and South America to Africa and Asia.
This guide explores the interactions between humans and porcupines, including hunting, use of quills by aboriginal societies, efforts to poison porcupines, and human and pet injuries (and deaths) caused by porcupines. Roze also highlights the conservation issues that surround some porcupine species, such as the thin-spine porcupine of Brazil, which is so rare that it was thought to be extinct until its rediscovery in the 1980s.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Introducing Porcupines
- 2 Form and Function of Porcupines
- 3 Porcupine Colors
- 4 Porcupine Behavior
- 5 Porcupine Ecology
- 6 Reproduction and Development
- 7 Foods and Feeding
- 8 Porcupines and Humans
- 9 Porcupine Problems (from a humanās viewpoint)
- 10 Human Problems (from a porcupineās viewpoint)
- 11 Porcupines in Stories and Literature
- 12 āPorcupinologyā
- Appendix A: Porcupines of the World
- Appendix B: Worldwide Wildlife Rehabilitation Organizations
- Bibliography
- Index
- Color Plates