Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Porcupines

I don't see much posted anywhere about the decline of these cuddly beasts.
They were very common here 30 years ago, it was considered sacrilege to kill one unless you were in desperate need of sustenance. Plywood signage is no longer chewed , and we no longer have to wash the dog urine off our tires either.
Clear-cut logging has removed large blocks of Pine, and the the Porcupine and Pine Martin seemed to be most affected. I miss both when I am out and about. What say you?

We saw one fours ago, as you said quite rare.

In the middle and late 80’s i would see 6 or 8 per day while running my bear baits. A week didn’t go by that ai didn’t have to pull quills from my hounds.
Then they disappeared and i didn’t see one for 20 years—except for when IO was in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Now the they seem to be making a comeback—saw a couple of roadkills last year and have seen about 6 this year.

Yes. They have become rare in our country as well where they roamed both the forest and sagebrush desert. Out in our desert environs one might see 3 or 4 sleeping among the branches of a large but infrequent cottonwood. Not anymore. Saw one in the forest about 2 summers ago. Folks with stupid dogs and horses don't seem to miss them, but I've always considered them an entertaining component of the landscape.

No idea as to the cause and most certainly cannot blame the logging industry in this region.

They are delicious.. I probably ate most of them.. be sure to skin them from the belly unless you like quills in your fingers..

I agree ^
Lots here in SE Alberta.

We still have a lot of them here were I live. The cattle ranchers hate them. It's not unusual to see a cow with quills embedded in their nose .

recent pics here showing gun dog encounters are not pretty

We have a lot of them in Vermont. Between quills in dogs and them chewing on my barn, I have soured on them somewhat.

I "relocated" 2 off our property, as I didn't trust the 3 dogs curiosity.

Have seen the nasty, done to my brothers blue heeler.

New 2 99s;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day out in your part of the world is as fair, bright and still as it is here today. We're having a wonderful day for this time of year truly.

When we were farming, the cousin which we farmed with had a Cocker Spaniel which was as bright as the average spanner really - and no, we don't use that term, however he made what we'd call a Ukrainian Socket Set seem bright in comparison.

One of his many failings, other than running under the rear tires of pickups, was porcupines.

Somehow since I was the ardent hunter of the 3 of us who were farming together, the task fell to me to dispatch any wayward porky that came close to the yard which held said brain trust candidate dog.

As I was still in the pangs of remorse from dispatching one, when the 2 way radio announced another one headed to their yard, I swung by the house for a quick conference with my then new wife. She's always been the brightest one in the room Paul. so suggested that we grab a big box from something we'd just picked up, a chunk of 1/4" plywood and just live trap the thing.

The method was benignly simple really, we both hazed it away from the yard on a stubble field, got it into a slow trot - for a porcupine that is of course - and then at the opportune time she ran in front of it, put down the box and I scooped it into the box with the plywood.

Then I closed the box lid, carried to my pickup and we drove it 4 or 6 miles north to where no dogs but lots of bush were.

She still laughs about the fact that when I tried to release the little fellow, it seemed very reluctant to leave it's new home and seemed sad to do so!

On the subject of how many or few there are here, while we used to see the odd one here up on the sagebrush covered mountains most of the time, it's been so long since we've seen one that our eldest commented just last weekend when we were up hunting that she can't recall ever seeing a live one.

It's not logging here that's caused them to disappear either I don't believe, as we'd mostly see them in the sagebrush and Ponderosa Pine sort of foliage which doesn't get logged of course. I'm actually not sure why they're so scare, but here they surely seem to be.

All the best to you all this season Paul.

Dwayne

We just are not seeing them around here these days.
30 years ago while on a backpack Stone sheep hunt in Northern BC , a porcupine severed one of the shoulder straps on my pack.
It was a walk in off the Alaska highway( roughly 20 miles). I repaired it with a bit of fishing line and a needle. It was seeking salt .
That 50 lb pack never rode well on my shoulders after my makeshift repair.

Huey, Dewey or Louey?

I see a lot of them in southern Alberta, where they still seem to be fairly common.

I still see them in Nova Scotia when I'm hunting there. Their population fluctuates though. I have not read anything about them being endangered. They are still other harvestable wildlife and may be harvested at any time to prevent property damage.

2 police in Maine were purportedly just fired for beating several to death with batons while on duty.

https://nypost.com/2020/10/07/maine-cops-fired-for-beating-porcupines-to-death-with-batons/

Good luck and shoot straight y'all

WTF is the matter with people today, cops on duty for God sake ? You just can't make this kind of dumb sh~t up !

My grandfather told about the time, when he was in his early teens, he got a brand new pair of boots. These were custom boots from a maker of rugged footwear for loggers and outdoorsman and he said, with these boots on, he felt invincible. He put this invincibility to the test one night when he saw a porcupine and decided to send it on it's way with a kick. Those quills went right through the leather. Worse, some broke off and stayed in the leather and, from time to time, another would work it's way through. I miss seeing the rodents around but I don't miss the damage they do and their defense mechanism is a little over the top. GD

i don't agree with abuse but rather swift dispatch

They seem to be everywhere here. Nothing to drive to town 18 miles and see 3-4 smash in the road.

fishers!