W.Va. seeing a return of the porcupine
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Porcupines are re-establishing themselves in West Virginia’s northeastern mountains, from Randolph to Berkeley counties.
Sightings of the spiny rodent have been on the rise, though no studies have been conducted to assess their numbers. Often, it’s a hunter’s dog returning to its master with a snoot full of quills that reveals their return.
The Charleston Sunday Gazette reports that until porcupines began turning up in West Virginia in recent years, the animals apparently had been absent for more than a century and the start of wide-scale deforestation.
Adult porcupines range from 2 to 3 feet in height and weigh between 12 and 35 pounds. It has up to 30,000 quills across its body, except for its belly and a portion of its face.