The porcupine belongs to the order of rodents and is a mammal. Usually porcupines in large numbers can be found in the subtropical and tropical climate zone in Africa and Asia. They live throughout the continent - in the mountains, plains, rainforests, deserts, savannahs. Porcupines prefer to feed at night and rest in their cool burrows during the day. The life span of a porcupine is about 15 years.
In length, the porcupine can reach up to 90 cm. Its weight depends on the species and varies from 3 to 27 kg. Throughout the body of the animal are long needles with brown and black alternating stripes. Needles for the animal also serve as a defense during a fight with other inhabitants, as well as a floating means so as not to drown. Inside the needles are empty, so with their help the porcupine does not drown. If suddenly the needle breaks, a new one quickly grows in its place. The hair itself is dyed brown. They have short, hairy legs. They run slowly, waddling from side to side. If they feel danger, they can add a step if they want to flee.
Porcupine is a herbivore, so the basis of the diet is plant foods. Most often these are green stems, leaves or root of any plant or their tubers and bulbs. Porcupines feed on bark, love cucumbers, melon, pumpkin. In order to gnaw through the dense bark at the bottom of the tree, the porcupine has long incisors that are constantly growing. In order to get their own food, porcupines are forced to go far from home, sometimes their path takes a length of more than 7 km. Only by the onset of cold weather the animal stops running so actively, tries to look for food closer to home, and with the onset of late autumn hides in its hole and falls into a long hibernation, until spring.
The porcupine is a solitary animal, but, like all other mammal species, it also has a breeding season. The period of gestation by the female of her cubs lasts about 150 days. Basically, about three cubs are born, the wool of which is covered with soft brown needles. Gradually, the rodents become a complete copy of mom and dad.
The porcupine is dangerous not only for cultural plantings on a personal plot, but also for the person himself. He gnaws the bark of grape bushes, fruit trees, etc. The porcupine can carry severe infections such as brucellosis or various fevers.
Option 2
Porcupines are one of 25 species of large, herbivorous rodents active from early evening until dawn. All members of the porcupine family have short, stocky legs, their tails vary from short to long, with some of them adapted for grasping. Porcupine quilts or quills take on different forms depending on the species, but they are all evolutionarily modified hair. The base color ranges from grayish brown and dark brown to blackish. It is worth noting that porcupine quills are also covered with colorful patterns of white, yellow, orange and black. All porcupines are classified into 2 main groups: Old World and New World porcupines.
The North American porcupine is the largest species in the family. Usually the weight does not exceed 7 kg, but sometimes males increase significantly. Its body is up to 80 cm long, its tail is up to 30 cm. They are covered with a total of 30,000 feathers. On the surface of the earth, the porcupine rushes forward and cannot jump; it climbs trees rather slowly, but has excellent balance; swims well in water. If attacked, he will begin to defend himself with his powerful, muscular tail from the attacker. Porcupines are known to be preyed upon by lynxes and wolverines.
The North American porcupine lives in forests, including wooded areas along rivers in tundra, grasslands, and desert areas. The species is distributed from Canada to northern Mexico, although it is absent from the southeastern United States. It is the only New World porcupine that lives both on the ground and in trees.
All other New World porcupines are arboreal and live in tropical forests from southern Mexico to South America. Their snouts are large and rounded. The Amazonian porcupine is the smallest species of this family. Primarily, they eat fruits at night and rest during the day.
Old World species are primarily terrestrial, although the Southeast Asian long-tailed porcupine can also climb trees for food. It is the smallest member of the family, weighing less than 4 kg; its length is about half a meter, not including the tail, which is about half the length of the body. Short-tailed porcupines are the largest, weighing up to 30 kg, almost a meter long and with a tail measuring 8-17 cm. Like the North American porcupine, they gnaw on horns and bones to diversify their diet, which consists mainly of herbivorous food.
Porcupines are one of the largest members of the rodent family.
These seemingly formidable animals have a number of distinctive features:
- The quills covering the porcupine's back are crowned with often arranged pointed burrs. When a porcupine attacks an enemy, the burrs open.
- The tail of a porcupine is an interesting anatomical phenomenon: the hollow needles at its end make a rumbling sound resembling a rattle.
- In danger, these animals turn their backs to the enemy and bristle. In a state of rage, the porcupine stomps its feet.
- Porcupine teeth do not grow properly, so all his life he has to gnaw on roots, branches and bones.
- Porcupines have excellent hearing: they can hear the sound of a fruit that has fallen to the ground at great distances.
The weight of an adult porcupine usually does not exceed 25 kilograms, the body length varies between 60–80 centimeters.
Living in rocky areas with a lot of vegetation, porcupines feast on roots, tubers, fruits and other fruits that can be found on the ground. A porcupine eating food is a rather touching sight: during the meal, it holds the prey with its front paws. The poor eyesight of the animal is compensated by a developed sense of smell, which helps these rodents to get their own food.
Porcupines prefer a solitary lifestyle. Having won the attention of the female during the mating season, the male porcupine occupies someone else's hole or digs his own to ensure the safety of the expectant mother and offspring. Porcupine burrows are real apartments: up to 10 meters in length, they are located at a depth of up to 5 meters underground with a couple of “room” extensions. The female settles in one of the extensions, preparing to give birth to 2-3 cubs. After 115 days, the family is replenished with bristly babies, who eat solid food on their own a few weeks after birth.
It is better not to joke with a porcupine: its quills penetrate deep into the body, it is very problematic to extract them without outside help, and inflammation of wounds after a skirmish with this cute animal is a common thing. For these reasons, porcupines are attacked mainly by large cats, and then, being very hungry.
Interesting Porcupine Facts:
- These animals are excellent swimmers.
- The body of a porcupine is adapted to drinking large amounts of water almost silently.
- In places where civilization reached late, savages made arrowheads from porcupine quills.
- In the past, there was a version that porcupines, when attacked, shoot quills from their tail.
Rodents They live all over the world. The nimble light squirrel and the clumsy spiny porcupine; tiny, 5 cm long and weighing several grams, a mouse and a meter-long, up to 30 kg beaver, a tree dweller dormouse and a clumsy boba; the inhabitant of the hot dry steppes and deserts the jerboa and the inhabitant of the cold tundra the lemming; muskrat, chipmunk and nutria... There are about 1.6 thousand species in total.
Rodents There are about 150 species of rodents in our country. They inhabit all natural zones, from the arctic tundra to the border of snow in the mountains. Most of them live in the steppe and forest-steppe. Basically, rodents lead a semi-underground lifestyle. Their burrows are almost always deep, with many passages, but they find food on the surface. Mice and rats lead a predominantly terrestrial lifestyle. There is always a mole voles in the earth, a zokor. Beavers and muskrats can live both on the surface and in the water. And squirrels and dormouse in the trees.
Their very name speaks of how these animals eat. The food of almost all rodents is vegetable. And the first sign by which a rodent is recognized is its teeth. They do not have fangs, but the incisors are long, strong and very sharp. From constant work, the incisors gradually wear down, but grow back. The rubbing surface of molars with tubercles, ridges or flat folds, the edges of which, when erased, usually sharpen themselves.
Due to the fact that rodents live in burrows and hibernate in winter, they endure adverse living conditions better than other mammals. They multiply quickly. The number of rodents in the tundra and mouse-like rodents in the steppe fluctuates sharply, increasing by several times in certain periods.
Rodents Of all the rodents, perhaps the most indoor can be called chipmunks. These animals are easily tamed. Cleanliness. The chipmunk cage does not require frequent cleaning and does not acquire a specific "mouse" smell. The animal sleeps at night and is active during the daytime, which is very convenient for communication with him. Chipmunks live for about five years.
Chinchilla Yellow ground squirrel, or sandstone ground squirrel called Arctomys fulvus, was described by Lichtenstein (1823) from a specimen dug up by E.A. Eversmann on October 31 (O.S.) near the Kuvanzhur River, east of the Mugodzhar Mountains. The description given by Lichtenstein is very short. It concerns only the size of the body with the tail, the description of the fingers and the color of the hair of the skin. Eversmann (1840) gives a similar description of this ground squirrel. The first fairly detailed and thorough description of the yellow ground squirrel can be a question
Rodents They live all over the world. The nimble light squirrel and the clumsy spiny porcupine; tiny, 5 cm long and weighing several grams, a mouse and a meter-long, up to 30 kg beaver, a tree dweller dormouse and a clumsy boba; the inhabitant of the hot dry steppes and deserts the jerboa and the inhabitant of the cold tundra the lemming; muskrat, chipmunk and nutria... There are about 1.6 thousand species in total. There are about 150 species of rodents in our country. They inhabit all natural zones, from the arctic tundra to the border of snow in the mountains. Most of them live in the steppe and forest-steppe. Basically, rodents lead a semi-underground lifestyle. Their burrows are almost always deep, with many passages, but they find food on the surface. Mice and rats lead a predominantly terrestrial lifestyle. There is always a mole voles in the earth, a zokor. Beavers and muskrats can live both on the surface and in the water. And squirrels and dormouse in the trees. Their very name speaks of how these animals eat. almost everyone's food
"Non-hereditary variability" - Changing environmental conditions. Adaptation - adaptation to given environmental conditions, survival, preservation of offspring. Conditionality of the limits of variability by genotype. Change object. Non-hereditary variability. The essence of the method. Follow the instructions of the Insert Chart Wizard. Each NEW result is written in the column "Row Value".
"Variability of organisms" - Modification variability. Non-adaptive modifications: morphoses and phenocopies. Topic: "Modification variability". Phenocopies are non-hereditary changes similar to known mutations. Pimenov A.V. Genetics studies not only heredity, but also the variability of organisms.
"Patterns of variability" - Make a table of the variation series of the variability of beans. environmental factors. Protein. Conclusions: Phenotype. What is heredity? Variation forms. How are hereditary traits transmitted? General biology. Hereditary mutational genotypic. Non-hereditary modification phenotypic.
"History of Genetics" - The history of genetics in dates. Show the role of genetic knowledge in solving global problems of mankind. A.S. Pushkin. Kozma Prutkov said: look to the root. GENETICS (Greek. Define the goals and objectives of genetics in the modern world. Lesson topic: genetics: the history of the development of science. Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 - 1884).
"Biology Adaptation" - Caring for offspring promotes the survival of young resilient populations. Lynx. Cobra. During the mating season, many animals form pairs. Bee. Warning coloration is characteristic of animals that have organs of protection. Fish - hedgehog. Relativity of devices. Green grasshopper. Morphological adaptations are associated with changes in the structure of the body.
"Genetics biology" - Inheritance of hemophilia. “The queen gave birth on the night Not a son, not a daughter. genealogical method. Project
The message about the porcupine can be used by students in preparation for the lesson. The story about the porcupine can be supplemented with interesting facts.
Porcupine Report
Porcupines- a family of rodents.
Where do porcupines live? The area of distribution of porcupines covers tropical and subtropical Asia and Africa. Their home can be foothills and plains, shrouds and deserts, tropical forest. Animals spend the day in cozy burrows and caves. And in the evening they come to the surface for food.
How long do porcupines live? Life expectancy in the wild is about 15 years.
Description of the porcupine
The body length of the porcupine is from 38 to 90 cm. The weight is from 2-3 kg and reaches 27 kg. The back, sides and tail of porcupines are covered with needles. The hair color is brown, and black and white stripes alternate on the needles.
The number of needles on the animal is approximately 30,000 pieces! All the needles covering the body of the porcupine are hollow. Therefore, when the animal is in the water, the needles serve as a buoy for him. And in a fight with predators, needles are the main means of defense. And the porcupine does not suffer from the loss of needles, as new ones quickly grow in place of the old ones.
What does a porcupine eat?
Vegetable food is the basis of the porcupine diet: the green and root parts of plants, tubers and bulbs, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, the lower part of vegetation and bark. For chewing, their animals have powerful incisors that always grow and remain sharp. To search for food, the porcupine sometimes has to move 5-7 kilometers from its place of residence. And only as the cold weather sets in, the porcupine loses its summer activity. It rarely leaves its burrow and then hibernates until spring.
The porcupine leads a solitary lifestyle. And spring is the breeding season for porcupines. The female bears babies for 110-115 days. Then 2-5 toothy rodents are born into the world. Their body is covered with soft needles at birth. However, very soon babies become like their own parents.
