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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
African
crested porcupine |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Mammalia |
| ORDER: |
Rodentia |
| FAMILY: |
Hystricidae |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Hystrix
(porcupine) cristata (crested) |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
The
crested porcupine is one of the largest rodents
and is covered with long, barbed quills and short,
stout quills. The shoulder quills erect to form
crest, and the long neck quills are white and brown. |
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| SIZE: |
Approximately
70 cm (28 in.) long; 12.5 cm (5 in.) tail |
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| WEIGHT: |
Weigh
up to 27.27 kg (60 lb.) |
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| DIET: |
Herbivores
that feed on leaves, stems, berries, fruit, blossoms,
bones, bark, and roots |
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| GESTATION: |
Gestation
lasts approximately 112 days; have 1-3 young twice
a year |
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| SEXUAL
MATURITY: |
Between
8-18 years old |
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| LIFE
SPAN: |
Averages
15 years |
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| RANGE: |
North
Africa, from Morocco to the Sudan and southeastern
Egypt, tropical eastern Africa |
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| HABITAT: |
Inhabits
wooded and rocky areas, deserts, forests, and grasslands;
burrows in the ground or a rocky crevice |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
Unknown |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Not
listed |
| CITES |
Appendix
III |
| USFWS |
Lower
Risk/near threatened |
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| 1. |
Porcupines that become alarmed do not shoot their
quills. They respond to the stimulus by raising
them up similar to the way people respond to the
weather by getting goose bumps. The quills of the
porcupine are barbed and because they easily fall
out when they are raised, it is very difficult for
any animal to touch them without getting one embedded
in its skin. |
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| 2. |
Crested porcupines are nocturnal animals that have
long whiskers on their face and feet that help them
feel their way around at night. They can travel
up to 9 miles at night. |
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| 3. |
Porcupines are rodents, so their teeth grow constantly.
To keep them from growing out of control, they eat
non-stop. As a rodent, they are able to chew through
almost anything! |
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| 4. |
Newborn
porcupines have soft spines that will later harden
to become stiff quills. The precocial young will
climb within days after their birth. |
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| Various
plant species must have seeds go through the digestive
system of an animal in order to propagate. Because
African crested porcupines are herbivores, they
help disperse such seeds.
Porcupines
are also a possible food source for a few larger
animals, such as large cats.
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|
|
Grzimek, H.C. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia.
Vol. 2. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.,
1975. |
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National Audubon Society Field Guide. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1995. |
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Nowak, R. (ed.). Walker's Mammals of the World.
Vol. 2. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1991.
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| Parker,
S. P. (ed). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Vol.
3. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990. |
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