No porcupines

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llholmes1948
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No porcupines

Post by llholmes1948 »

An interesting item from the yesterday's column in the Hungry Horse News. I wonder what happened to all the porcupines?

"Oct. 28, 1960

Editor Mel Ruder called for a bounty on porcupines for the damage they did to trees and human equipment, like vehicles and ax handles. Today there are few porcupines regionally and almost none in Glacier National Park, even where there is no hunting."
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Re: No porcupines

Post by PeteE »

Lyman, you forgot the link. :D
I'm not laughing though because I've been suffering from that malady called CRS(Can't Remember S**T) for a long time now 8)

A friend of mine who's in his 80's and was born and grew up living in Glacier Park, told me porcupines were a big nuisance when he was a kid.

pete :wink:

Hungry Horse News link to the porcupine story.
Scroll down.
https://hungryhorsenews.com/news/2020/n ... unty-popu/
"If you are not curious, you will learn nothing" -Goethe-

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Re: No porcupines

Post by llholmes1948 »

Hi Pete,
Thanks for posting the link.

I wonder what happened to the porcupines. My daughter's dog seems to be able to find them now and then, much to his regret.

Lyman
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Re: No porcupines

Post by PeteE »

Lyman, I found this article which is pretty good.
However, it doesn't look like anyone knows what happened to the porcupines on this side of the divide.

http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/artic ... upines.htm

pete :wink:
"If you are not curious, you will learn nothing" -Goethe-

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Re: No porcupines

Post by llholmes1948 »

Pete,
That is a very interesting article and thanks for posting the link. It sounds like the mystery continues.

I don't recall hearing anything about porcupines when I worked at Lake McDonald 1970-72 and I never heard of anyone encountering them on the trails or around the hotel. Of course they are not a very exciting species so probably they wouldn't have been mentioned even if someone saw one.

I certainly see them a lot on the roads in Maine. About a year ago I hit a large porcupine which unfortunately did in the poor animal and also our tailpipe. My wife didn't appreciate driving around without a tailpipe for a few days until we could get a new one but I was rather amused.

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Re: No porcupines

Post by llholmes1948 »

Link to an item on porcupines in the Bangor Daily News (and a video of an albino porcupine):

https://bangordailynews.com/2020/11/06/ ... your-yard/
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Re: No porcupines

Post by brindledog »

Interesting article, and very pretty albino porcupine. We don't have them around here (NC), so I don't have any conflicting feelings: They are cute to me because they are not chewing up my shovels and fences.
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Re: No porcupines

Post by teapot57 »

My guess is that all the porcupines crossed the border and made themselves at home in the Canadian Rockies.

When backpacking in Banff this summer, we had major porcupine issues in the Skoki area. We were forewarned before arriving at camp not to leave anything in our tent vestibule, as the resident porcupines would go right underneath and steal whatever you left out. We also encountered a couple hiking out early, because their poor dog had a snoutful of quills (dogs are allowed in the Banff backcountry, but must stay on leash).

I have to say, they sure do make very cute snuffling sounds when they are active outside your tent at 3:00 am. But I did not enjoy having my muddy boots inside the tent with me.

I did not get the opportunity to photograph one, but you can see their nibblings on these trees.

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Re: No porcupines

Post by tibber »

teapot57 wrote: Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:31 pm My guess is that all the porcupines crossed the border and made themselves at home in the Canadian Rockies.

When backpacking in Banff this summer, we had major porcupine issues in the Skoki area. We were forewarned before arriving at camp not to leave anything in our tent vestibule, as the resident porcupines would go right underneath and steal whatever you left out. We also encountered a couple hiking out early, because their poor dog had a snoutful of quills (dogs are allowed in the Banff backcountry, but must stay on leash).

I have to say, they sure do make very cute snuffling sounds when they are active outside your tent at 3:00 am. But I did not enjoy having my muddy boots inside the tent with me.

I did not get the opportunity to photograph one, but you can see their nibblings on these trees.
oh my goodness, who knew they could be so troublesome, other than just their quills.
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