Talk:Porcupine/Archive 1

Hairynosed Porcupine
I find no mention elsewhere of a hairynosed porcupine, and the species name is illegible. What is it supposed to be? -phma

I don't think there is such a thing.211.72.108.3 02:56, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

What do you mean?!?!?!
What does it mean to be "less strictly nocturnal"? Less than what? :)
 * Less than a vampire, I would think.
 * Someone saw one almost at dusk or dawn, pulled up the Wikipedia article on their laptop and showed it to the porky, but it didn't immediately fall asleep. Therefore, for absolute correctness, the article needed a qualifier. Heh. There are grades of nocturnal/dinural, sometimes if an animal is most active at dusk and dawn, it's called crepuscular. Porkys, I guess, don't have bat's echolocation ability, or a cat's glowing tapetum, so needs some light.64.252.140.217 (talk) 02:40, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Names
What are the male and female names for a Porcupine? A buck and a doe are male and female deer, for example. Anyone?

A female is called a sow and a male is a boar. A baby is a pup in case you were wondering.

Actually, a baby Porcupine is called a Porcupette. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.186.227.147 (talk) 07:44, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Third largest?
I think the porcupine is the third largest rodent: #1 - capybara, #2 - beaver. Is this correct?

Once the ranking of the porcupine in terms of size is completed [to the best of my knowledge it's probably capybara, beaver, porcupine, but I'm not certain], could the sentence "The porcupine is the third largest rodent, after the beaver." be fixed? Please? It's driving me nuts.

Yes, that's true.211.72.108.3 02:56, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

This is 100% true and someone keeps changing it find me a 25 pound or larger mara there isnt. Why does someone keep changing it. Correct facts not false ones. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.165.142.8 (talk) 00:29, 14 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Which species? --Aranae 03:18, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Mating
If somebody is up to it they can integrate How do porcupines make love?:


 * Young children should be banned from the university library basements. Sometimes the most improbable science is also the truest. Never stand close to cage which contains courting porcupines.



Disbambiguation
Porcupine: Disambiguation

A porcupine is a medieval defensive weapon consisting of an assemblage of (simple) machines controlled by a rope, the purpose of which is to fire many arrows simultaneously, at about waist level, throuch a grid of holes in the lower portion of a door or doors, such as those found in a fortification. The basic concept and its use are seen in the film "The Messenger" with model and actress Milla Jovovich as Jean Darc, the person usually reffered to under the name "Joan of Arc." The porcupine is seen used by English forces. I do not know that the porcupine is a uniquely English weapon.

A porcupine is also a device designed for surreptiously punching holes in walls and introducing incapacitant gas into adjacent rooms. It is held in the inventories of various groups in the United States which are deemed competent to use special methods for delivery of chemical agents. Examples include the Psychological Operations detachment at Fort Bragg, as well as certain components of the CIA. Limited additional information on this definition is availible with two citations I have found, so that I may be able to add it later.

I would set up the disambiguation page for "porcupine" myself, but I do not know how. Perhaps someone could do this for me and then i could finish the entry.

-

Human Sexuality        There is already a porcupine disambiguation page,           Vajj                     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_%28disambiguation%Plajj                    29. You can edit that to see how other links there are                   referenced...when you add a new meaning(s) to that page,                     and they doesAliza Bahabiacn't have a wikipedia entry, view your edited disambiguation page (preview or saved), click on the new meaning, and one of the options you'll see is "create an entry" or something like that. Maybe not the best way to add a new entry in wikipedia, but it works. Agyle 16:43, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Do porcupine quills, in addition to bolstering self-defense, act as sensory cells (like human skin)
Are the quills more like the hair on a human's head (dead, unfeeling) or are they more like the hair inside our ears (alive, sensitive)?

They're dead cells. I mean, they can fall off easily... Dora Nichov 11:54, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

taxonomy
Under the "Species" title, the porcupine is identified as a rodent, and then later it is said to be in the insectavore order. No species can belong to multiple orders. I know enough about taxonomy to realize that there is an error here, but I don't know much about porcupines, so somebody who is more of an expert should try to fix this error.
 * If you reread the section you'll see that it is described as having spiny hairs similar to those found in hedgehogs and that hedgehogs are insectivorans. --Aranae 17:46, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Anyways, porcupines are rodents and not inesctivores. Dora Nichov 13:30, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Free State Project
Should there be a mention that the logo of the Free State Project is a porcupine? If there should, what would be the best way to mention this? I removed the "See also" section, whose sole member was a link to the Free State Project Dylan Lake (t·c· ε ) 06:28, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Species List Update
This page is missing the Sunda Porcupine, Hystrix javanica. I am unsure if this species belongs in the new Thecurus genus but for now I will list it below Hystrix brachyura.
 * Subgenus Acanthion and related to H. brachyura. You were correct in your placement.  --Aranae 00:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Are there porcupines in Australia?
I know there are echidnas in Australia, but what about porcupines? If so, which areas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.45.142.229 (talk) 01:03, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
 * There are no porcupines in Australia. --Aranae 03:11, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

poor sentence
"Virtually all species of porcupine have approximately 30,000 quills." I am removing this sentence due to its lack of source and its ambiguous nature.

Copyright violation
Some of the text is copied verbatim from this page, which is referenced as a source in the text:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Erethizon_dorsatum.html

This seems a serious problem! This is a good source but copy-and-paste is not acceptable. Cazort 19:06, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Another poor sentence
"All defend themselves with sharp spines—actually modified hairs—rather like those of the hedgehogs (which are part of the order Erinaceomorpha and more closely related to shrews and moles than they are to porcupines) and echidnas are monotremes, making them very distantly related."

I can't figure this out. Removing all the parenthetical stuff, it's:

"All defend themselves with sharp spines rather like those of the hedgehogs and echidnas are monotremes, making them very distantly related."

Something wrong with the grammar. Are porcupines monotremes? --Hordaland (talk) 20:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Quill shooting
the page says that porcupines shoot quills from near their tails, then at the end of the page that porcupines do not shoot quills. As far as I know, they do not. Can someone clear this up, please? Bird 138.202.14.119 (talk) 18:15, 7 May 2008 (UTC)


 * They, in fact, do NOT "shoot" their quills. The cause of this misconception is that the quills are very easily removed from the porcupine's skin. What really happens is that, when the porcupine starts flailing its tail around in self-defense, the quills are shaken loose and go flying all over the place. Groundlord (talk) 16:52, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

I remember I read a book of biology written in Vietnamese by a Vietnamese scientist (I forgot the source), the author confirmed that the porcupines kept at Ha Noi Zoo, Vietnam, can shoot their quills. 202.151.167.128 (talk) 13:38, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

What preys on Porcupines?
What animals eat porcupines, I know there must be some animals capable of getting around the quills in order to eat them 63.26.207.120 (talk) 03:55, 7 July 2008 (UTC)eric
 * Fishers eat New World porcupines. --Aranae (talk) 04:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Pretty much anything that could flip them onto their backs could be considered a predator, although I'm pretty sure that fishers are their "major" predators. Groundlord (talk) 16:55, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

The cite: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-porcupine.html notes: "Large cats, especially lions, and human hunters (bushmeat trade) threaten Old World porcupines. New World porcupines’ predators include martens, wolverines, pythons, eagles, and great horned owls. One porcupine predator, the fisher, is able to flip the North American porcupine onto its back, exposing its unprotected belly. In fact, the fisher has been reintroduced to some areas of North America in hopes of bringing destructive populations of porcupines under control." Perhaps porcupines are not a hot topic for wikiped's, the discussion ending years ago, but there is more to be found via Google than appears in Wikipedia.It's disappointing.Henrysteinberger (talk) 01:45, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Porcupine Hunting unllegal?
I had heard that hunting porcupines was unllegal and that the reason for this was that a person lost, stranded, etc in the woods could easily pick up a rock or fallen branch and bludgeon one to death without serious danger, then access the meat through the belly. Thus, keeping the population high by not allowing hunting under usual circumstances improved survival chances for humans in such dire straights slightly. Is this true? If so, where and for which species? If not, was it ever true, and the law repealed due to not being needed any more? —Preceding unsigned   500132503      comment added by 68.166.5.188 (talk) 09:22, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I seriously doubt this. prashanthns (talk) 11:40, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Do you mean illegal? Henrysteinberger (talk) 01:48, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

WikiProject Rodents
This is a notice to inform interested editors of a new WikiProject being proposed at WikiProject Council/Proposals/Rodents --&#65279;ΖαππερΝαππερ BabelAlexandria 02:05, 24 June 2009 (UTC) So is it illegal to hunt or kill porcupine??? I was told by several sources ( fellow hunters/naturalists ) that they are a protected species. Is there any truth to this ? Guido Wisconsin (talk) 03:40, 9 July 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Guido Wisconsin (talk • contribs) 03:33, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

very, very carefully
We all know the punchline, but the question is a valid one: How exactly do porcupines have sex? The usual quadruped position seems like it would be rather painful for the male; do they mate face-to-face, or what? 71.248.115.187 (talk) 01:19, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

porcupines fact
a porcupines is the largest rodent in canada next to the beaver.it is a medium sized with long,pointed spines that grow on its back. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.78.177.31 (talk) 04:27, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
 * That would be the North American Porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum. Ucucha 04:34, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Endemic?
The first statement says Procupines are endemic to the Old World and the New World. Isnt that basically every part of the world? so that means they are not endemic to one region but pandemic in every part of the world. What do you think?
 * "Endemic" is not a good term to use here. I changed it to "indigenous". Ucucha 07:30, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Suggestions for new material

 * What purpose does tree-climbing serve?
 * How successful are the quills against birds of prey, canines, snakes and large felines?
 * Mating (I'm sure they're very, very careful but a few details would be nice.)
 * Diet
 * Lifespan (Is it because of their defence that they are so long-lived, or just blessed with good health?)
 * Vocalizations (What does all that teeth clattering mean?)
 * Diseases
 * Winter habitats

How are the various porcupines related? Where did they first originate?
I came to wikipedia hoping to find how porcupines evolved. The article suggests that the quills evolved independently in old and new world species, but it is not clear whether the two major groupings are even related to each other any more closely than sharing a rodent ancestor. Are they all called porcupine simply because they share a common defense system independently evolved, or are they actually "close" "cousins"?Henrysteinberger (talk) 02:08, 7 July 2011 (UTC)


 * This information I think is in the article, but I agree it's not that clear. I'll see what I can do/get done about it.  Chrisrus (talk) 17:36, 11 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Let's change the lead so it goes something like this:

Porcupines are rodents which are covered with a thick coat of defensive quills or spines. The Old World porcupines and New World Porcupines belong to different branches on the rodent family tree: Old World porcupines are basically terrestrial or fossorial, den-diggers animals of Africa and Asia that stem from the same branch as mole rats, and cane rats, while porcupines of the New World are arborial climbers of The Americas which are more closely related to guinea pigs or chinchillas than they are to the old world porcupines.

Remove Taxobox
Why does this article have a taxobox? There is no taxon for this referent. The taxobox should be removed. Chrisrus (talk) 17:36, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism
Why does this page get such persistent vandalism? Donmike10 (talk) 17:55, 10 May 2012 (UTC)