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Prehensile-tailed Porcupine
Coendou prehensilis

prehensile-tailed porcupineDescription
With sharp spines, a big, round nose, and a tail they can hang from, prehensile-tailed porcupines are nocturnal vegetarian rodents. They have short, thick spines, and their body color runs from yellowish to orange-rust to brown to almost black. They weigh 4 to 11 pounds (2 to 5 kg). Their bodies are 300 to 600 millimeters long, and their tails are almost as long as their bodies, adding another 330 to 485 millimeters. Like howler monkeys, these porcupines use their prehensile tails for grasping and hanging. These tails have no spines, and the upper side near the end has a callus pad.

Home Range
Venezuela, Guiana, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Trinidad, and some extreme northern sections of Argentina

Habitat
Forest

Diet
Leaves, flowers, shoots, roots, and the cambium layer found beneath the bark of some trees

Zoo Diet
The porcupines' Zoo diet includes a fruit and vegetable salad mix, monkey biscuits, and rodent blocks.

Reproduction
One young

Social Structure
Active at night; found in small social groups at sleeping times. Otherwise solitary or paired.

They sleep during the day in the upper canopy of trees, but they have also been found resting on lower limbs and in hollow trunks and lower burrows.

Fun Fact
 In the wild, prehensile-tailed porcupines can be pretty tough. They have been known to bite and hit those who attack or try to capture them. They stamp their hind feed when excited and curl up in a ball if caught. They also sit on their haunches, shake their spines, and emit both deep growls and high-pitched cries.

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