African Crested Porcupine
Hystrix africaeustralis
IUCN red list status:
Least Concern
For more informations, please visit iucnredlist.org
The African Crested Porcupine lives in Sub-Saharan Africa.
They eat bark, roots, fruits and berries and occasionally farmed crops.
African Crested Porcupines live for 15-20 years.
Females bear 1-4 offspring, known as ‘porcupettes’, after a gestation period of 112 days, and are weaned at 3-4 months.
African Crested Porcupine
About the African Crested Porcupine
The African crested porcupine is the largest porcupine in the world. These porcupines mostly live in hilly, rocky habitats in sub-Saharan Africa. The sharp, sturdy quills of the African crested porcupine give it highly effective protection against predators. Its body is covered with coarse quills, each up to 13 inches long and of varying thicknesses. They will thrust if feel they are under attack, driving their quills into the skin of any potential threats.
African crested porcupines eat tubers, bark, bulbs, fallen fruit and cultivated root crops. They are nocturnal and forage alone at night, traveling up to 9 miles in their search for food. They return to the den and rest during the day. Though they forage alone, they live in small family groups made up of an adult pair and their young.
Did you know?
Contrary to popular belief, porcupines cannot shoot their quills from their body, but they can cause significant damage by charging backwards, as a last resort to ward off predators. Porcupines have been known to significantly injure lions, hyenas, leopards and even humans through lodging their quills into its enemy’s skin.
