It is replaced in southern and central Africa by the Cape porcupine, H. The crested porcupine ( Hystrix cristata), a typical representative of the Old World porcupines, occurs throughout the south of Europe and North and West Africa. africanus) will simultaneously raise sharp quills, 40 cm (16 inches) in length, on its back and sides. When threatened, most porcupines will wag their tails, making a louder rattling noise to scare off predators. Of the three genera, Hystrix is characterized by an inflated skull, in which the nasal cavity is often considerably larger than the brain case, and a short tail, tipped with numerous slender-stalked open quills, which make a rattling noise whenever the animal moves.

Species African brush-tailed porcupine ( Atherurus africanus) sold for meat in Cameroon These rodents are also characterized by the imperfectly rooted cheek-teeth, imperfect clavicles or collar-bones, cleft upper lip, rudimentary first front-toes, smooth soles, six teats arranged on the side of the body, and many cranial characters. Males, in particular, help defend the colony from intruders, although both sexes are aggressive towards unrelated porcupines. The young remain with the colony until they reach sexual maturity at around two years of age, and share the burrow system with their parents and siblings from other litters. Although they begin to take solid food within two weeks, they are not fully weaned until 13 to 19 weeks after birth. The young are born more or less fully developed, and the spines, which are initially soft, harden within a few hours of birth. Females typically give birth only once a year, in a grass-lined underground chamber within a burrow system. One or two (or, rarely, three) young are born after a gestation period between 90 and 112 days, depending on the species. Through an arm of the masseter muscles, passing through the infraorbital foramen, chewing movements are very efficient. Similar to other hystricomorphs, their chewing muscles are unique. The prominent diastema allows the lips to be drawn inwards while gnawing. Like other rodents, they have powerful gnawing incisors, and no canine teeth. Some species also gnaw on dry bones, perhaps as a source of calcium. The various species are typically herbivorous, eating fruit, roots, and bulbs. They vary in size from the relatively small long–tailed porcupine with body lengths of 27.9 to 48 cm (11.0 to 18.9 in), and a weight of 1.5 to 2.3 kg (3.3 to 5.1 lb), to the much larger crested porcupines, which are 60 to 83 cm (24 to 33 in) long, discounting the tail, and weigh from 13 to 27 kg (29 to 60 lb). The habits of most species are strictly terrestrial. Old World porcupines are stout, heavily built animals, with blunt, rounded heads, fleshy, mobile snouts, and coats of thick cylindrical or flattened spines, which form the whole covering of their bodies, and are not intermingled with ordinary hairs. Although both the Old World and New World porcupine families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi of the vast order Rodentia, they are quite different and are not particularly closely related. They range over the south of Europe and the Levant, most of Africa, India, and Southeast Asia as far east as Flores. The Old World porcupines, or Hystricidae, are large terrestrial rodents, distinguished by the spiny covering from which they take their name. Relief of a porcupine in an Egyptian desert, detail of a wall fragment from the grave of Pehenuikai at Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, c.

Porcupine predators fisher image