Precious Prehensile-Tailed Porcupette
A new zoo baby in Fort Worth, TX
A new bundle of quills and joy was announced at the Fort Worth Zoo at end end of May. It’s a new little prehensile-tailed porcupette (i.e. a baby porcupine), born in the early hours of the 17th to mom Piper and dad Quilliam. The young’un weighed in at 404 grams, according to the zoo “about the size of a loaf of sandwich bread.” At present, it’s unknown if the ‘pette is a boy or a girl, since porcupine sex organs are internal. The zoo plans testing the DNA of one of the baby’s quills to determine gender within the next few weeks.
Porcupettes are born with soft, red hair that will start to harden after a few hours. I’m sure mom is thankful for that adaptation. Porcupettes will grow their protective quills after a few weeks. As the quills grown in, their reddish color will change to a darker gray with contrasting quill tips. The quills are used as defense—in the wild, a threatned porcupine lunge towards a threat head-down or will roll itself into a ball, discouraging predators unwilling to risk a nose or mouth full of sharp needles.
There are, I was surprised to discover, 16 recognized species of new world porcupines, 15 of which have prehensile tails. The zoo does not specify, but based on my best guess, I believe this baby is a Brazillian porcupine. Her mom and dad, a bonded pair, came to the zoo eariler in the year and were the subject of a February 25th Instagram post, snacking on corn. And off-camera they were making sweet (but careful!) porcupine love, apparently. The gestation time for this type of porcupine is about 200 days.
The zoo reports that the porcupette is nursing well. The little one is being weighed regularly and is growing fast. They plan on a gender announcement and name reveal in the coming weeks.
Source video here:
And as a bonus, you get another video with the zoo’s birth announcement. This baby is too cute!
Jacksonville Zoo: “Do All Porcupines Have Prehensile Tails?” 12/22/22
Animal Diversity Web: Coendou prehensilis, Brazilian porcupine
I'm ded.
Some of them have prehensile tails?? Why did I not know this before? My porcupine plushie does not have one of those (plushies are a collection, not an obsession). I wonder if I can find one? The pette? I am overcome by the cuteness.