Porcupine: Lunch

Originally uploaded by miss_distance

I’ve gotten to know this fellow. His branch-dangling antics are really something, and he munches and grunts and smacks his lips to let me know the bark is really good this year. This fellow was spotted in broad daylight, but I also found him again, in another tree, at the last glow of sunset. And later, driving in the dark, I had to stop the truck and wait for one BIG porcupine to waddle-shuffle over the road and up the grassy ditch. The weird thing was, there didn’t appear to be trees in either direction. When he got to the top of a little mound, I saw him rise up a bit on his hind legs, as if to take a quick look around. Probably this was a quick predator check, not looking for the next tree! I assume they move regularly, tree to tree, and have routes. A very different life, for porcupines in the Badlands! In Upper Michigan, they could pick one grove and never move.