Why would a porcupine go so far out on a limb? Wouldn’t it be safer closer to the trunk? Although porcupines are quite good at balancing themselves, many fall to their death by venturing out on limbs. I’ve seen porcupines on trees in the salt marsh before, but they were always clinging to thicker branches or resting on top of large evergreen boughs.
You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.
~ Will Rogers
Rogers’ quotation might apply to porcupines in apple trees, but this porcupine wasn’t on a fruit tree. Porcupines will eat the inner bark of fir trees in winter when other food is more scarce, but although there are many fir trees in the marsh, this wasn’t one of them. The porcupine was also hanging out on an island that’s a common roost for bald eagles in the marsh. Eagles, coyotes and bobcats, all marsh residents, are known to prey on porcupines.
Why is this porcupine so far out on a limb?
This tree looks like a maple and it does appear as though some of its bark has been chewed. Perhaps, with its acute sense of smell, the porcupine was lured by the scent of tender leaf buds that might be just beginning to emerge at the tips of the branches. I can only wonder.
Flandrum Hill 
omg i have never seen that, and if i did, it didn’t register what it was ty!
Elisa, unless you’re aware of porcupines in the area, it would be so easy to dismiss the shape as something else. At first I thought the dark ball was the top of a black spruce tree. My camera helped to capture a better quality image than the one I was able to see with my bare eyes.
They are interesting creatures. And very appealing (to me) in their nature and characteristics but they are also somewhat of an enigma. They always make me smile 🙂
Colleen, they do keep to themselves so there is probably so much about them that we still don’t know. I hate seeing them as roadkill.
Suicide by predator? Or lost in space? Hmm, sometimes the best place is where others fear to roam…… Who knows? Only that porcupine knows for sure….
47whitebuffalo, until someone learns how to speak porcupine, we can only guess 🙂
It is something to ponder. I don’t think I would have once wondered why a porcupine would go so far out on a limb. I would have thought that the porcupine was smarter than any observer and therefore would have a perfect reason. However, since you say that porkies fall to their death from venturing way out on limbs, my whole world view has collapsed. Anything is now possible…even that wildlife can make mistakes too.
Kathy, every wild animal that ends up as another’s dinner or roadkill has made a mistake. I frequently see red squirrels make falls they likely didn’t plan. Gibbons (monkeys that jump from tree to tree), when examined, are frequently found with broken bones that have healed and mountain goat carcasses are not an uncommon find at the bottom of rocky mountains.
Supposedly, porcupines have antibiotics in their skin which would come in handy in the healing process when they fall and are pricked by their own quills.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Poor thing looks a bit out of place. I remember our dogs coming home with noses full of porcupine quills…ouch!
Lynne, dogs and porcupines just don’t go together. Our dog used to do the same. He never learned to leave them alone.
I wonder if like cats, they get scared and then can’t get back down ?
Sybil, I wouldn’t be surprised. I wondered if porcupines walked backwards once they had reached the end of the branch or had a way of very carefully changing direction. Maybe it’s at that point that they just decide to let go, scrunch themselves into their tightest ball shape, and just fall to the ground.
I know the feeling.
Me too Gerry 🙂
Maybe the porcupine is a dreamer and was in the middle of pondering some existential question when he suddenly discovered himself to be in quite a predicament. I think animal minds, like human minds, are still evolving…
Barbara, besides falling from branches while daydreaming, perhaps being lost in thought while crossing roads is what makes porcupines so vulnerable to ending up on the Roadkill Cafe menu. it would make sense then that only the focused, goal-driven porcupines would survive to pass on their genes to the next generation.
Now that’s something I’ve never seen! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
pattisj, hopefully one day you’ll have a chance to see it for yourself.
Yes, I was wondering too if there might be any neighborhood dogs that forced the poor thing on to its precipice. From a distance the quills give a fuzzy, almost cuddly effect!
Aubrey, the porcupine was on an island in a provincial park. Though a dog might not have chased it there, a coyote might have. I wonder how ‘cuddly’ those quills would be up close? 🙂
This was very interesting and surprising to read about, I had to look it up to know more. This type of porcupine doesn´t live in Europe, so it is a bit exotic to hear about. I have to tell someone about it. 🙂
Giiid, these porcupines are much larger than the European hedgehogs. Like the hedgehogs, they often end up as roadkill but are more of a concern due to the damage they can do to animals (and people) with their sharp quills.