No, really, this is a serious question

[MelissaBaby]

I know the correct answer, but I am wondering if most people do. Please don't look it up before you answer.

Can porcupines climb trees?


(Yes, this is for a story)

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I know the correct answer, but I am wondering if most people do. Please don't look it up before you answer.

Can porcupines climb trees?


(Yes, this is for a story)

Yes they ca. It wason tv the other day. They eat fruit they collect from trees.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Yes they ca. It wason tv the other day. They eat fruit they collect from trees.

Did you know before you saw that program?

I am hoping to get a feeling for whether or not it is common knowledge.

 

[Valint]

My instinctive response is that of course porcupines don't climb trees, and it's silly to think they could.

... though, after thinking about it for a few minutes, it's basically just a large rodent, and lots of other rodents can climb trees, so I'm not sure why my mental picture of a porcupine was that it was exclusively ground-based.

 

[oggbashan]

Yes they can, but unlike hedgehogs which also climb, they don't tend to get stuck in the trees.

 

[NotWise]

Yes, porcupines climb trees. I didn't have to look it up. I had to look up to watch.

 

[SimonDoom]

I know the correct answer, but I am wondering if most people do. Please don't look it up before you answer.

Can porcupines climb trees?


(Yes, this is for a story)

I'm trying to figure out if this has something to do with an erotic story, and, if so, how. Even thinking about a porcupine is a mood killer.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

North American Porcupines, yes. Not sure about the other ones. And as cute as they are in pictures, in person man they're scary as hell!

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'm trying to figure out if this has something to do with an erotic story, and, if so, how. Even thinking about a porcupine is a mood killer.

In the chapter of Mary and Alvin I am working on, they go, as we say in Maine, "up to camp". On the way, they get into a discussion about porcupines. Mary, a city girl, is skeptical when Alvin tells her that some of the dead porkies along the road may have fallen out of trees.

The point is to emphasize his comfort in the outdoors setting, and her unfamiliarity with it.

By the way, I also know the answer to "How do porcupines fuck without stabbing each other?"

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

By the way, I also know the answer to "How do porcupines fuck without stabbing each other?"

"Very carefully."

 

[MelissaBaby]

Before reading the comments of the others, I wouldn't have put all of my money on 'Yes', but somehow I already did suspect that they can. I guess I also must have seen it in one of those documentaries.

Does it really matter if the readers do know this, or are you affraid you will get angry comments from readers thinking you are making things up? In case of the latter, I wouldn't be worried; the first one to make such a comment would probably be 'corrected' by others before you know it--quite a few people knowing these facts like to show off their knowledge, probably providing links to wikipedia and YouTube whenever they can.

I wasn't worried, just curious.

 

[where_is_RUTH]

Yes they can, but unlike hedgehogs which also climb, they don't tend to get stuck in the trees.

Why do they get stuck? Isn't that a design flaw? The ones that climb and get stuck don't have babies:

 

[MelissaBaby]

First draft:

“I think you made that up,” Mary said, ‘i think its something you tell the tourists to mess with their heads.”

“I did not make it up.”

“I’m sorry, she responded, shaking her head, “But I don't believe porcupines fall out of trees.”

Mary had been appalled by how many roadkill animals they had seen since they’d turned off the turnpike and on to the state highway. There had been a large number of porcupines, in particular, and Alvin had remarked that not all of them had been hit by cars, that some had fallen from trees.

“Why don't you believe it?” he asked.

“First of all, Im skeptical that they climb trees at all. And if they do know how to climb trees, then why do they fall out of them?”

“They climb too high so as to nibble on leaves or pine needles and a big wind comes along and blows them out.”

“Well, maybe. But I still think you’re messing with me, and besides, that doesn’t account for all the dead ones in the road. They didn’t all fall out of trees.”

“No, they get hit by cars because they don’t run away. A squirrel or a raccoon in the road will run away when they hear a car coming, a porky thinks it can fight it.”

“Thats awful.”

“Yes, well, they generally lose. But look at it this way. We killed off most of the predators, so now the cars take that spot in the ecology.”

“I am not buying the idea that running animals over with cars maintains the balance of nature.”

“You don’t know that the critters don't prefer it to gotten eaten by wolves.”

“You people are savages.”

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

Falling porcupines often injure people more than themselves. It's cool that they have physiological defense mechanisms if they fall or stab themselves. I can really see Alvin having fun with Mary about looking out for falling needle-rats!

 

[MelissaBaby]

Falling porcupines often injure people more than themselves. It's cool that they have physiological defense mechanisms if they fall or stab themselves. I can really see Alvin having fun with Mary about looking out for falling needle-rats!

I am hoping this whole chapter is fun. I think I'm making my readers cry too much, they need a break.

 

[Hypoxia]

In Alaska some years back, my partner regularly drove through a valley so infested with porkies that road traffic was often blocked. No mention of trees; I'll ask later.

 

[Alice_Rosaleen]

I am hoping this whole chapter is fun. I think I'm making my readers cry too much, they need a break.

Not that a porcupine would actually fall on either of them, just that he could tease her about it a while. I don't know if your readers could handle it if either of them were poked in a bad way

 

[ElectricBlue]

Send them on holidays to Australia, and introduce them to drop-bears.

Alvin might confuse the drop-bears momentarily, but they'll quickly sort out the accents and home in on the two of them, being Americans...

...or you can choose not to believe in 'em. Your call.

 

[oggbashan]

Why do they get stuck? Isn't that a design flaw? The ones that climb and get stuck don't have babies:

Hedgehogs seem to have a will to climb but they aren't very good at climbing down. They will and do get stuck in rainwater pipes because as they climb the spikes are flattened. When they try to reverse - the spikes act as brakes.

 

[Oblimo]

I can’t believe the thread has gone on this long without this:

Ahem

Ooooo...

Bestiality sure is a fun thing to do
But I have to say this as a warning to you:
With almost all animals, you can have ball
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

CHORUS 1:
The spines on his back are too sharp for a man
They'll give you a pain in the worst place they can
The result I think you'll find will appall:
The hedgehog can never be buggered at all!

Mounting a horse can often be fun
An elephant too; though he weighs half a ton
Even a mouse (though his hole is quite small)
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

CHORUS 2:
The spines on his back are so awful thick
you'll end up with naught but a painful prick.
He has an impregnable hole when curled up in a ball,
Hence the hedgehog can never be buggered at all!

Screwing a cow while she goes moo-moo
Will be entertaining to both her and you
Or you might try a tiger, if you have enough gall
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

CHORUS 3:
(So here's to the hedgehog, he's sharp as they come
You'll never get through his impregnable bum
With his nose up his arsehole and rolled in a ball
The hedgehog can never be buggered at all)

The current full set of fan lyrics can be found here, in lspace.

 

[where_is_RUTH]

^^ always good to learn new things!!!

 

[Paul_Chance]

As someone who grew up in a rural setting - yes, everyone knows that porcupines can and do climb trees, both for foraging and for being safe from predators if pursued and far from their den, though their first instinct is to go into the ground, or get nose first against something so the predator is confronted with only spines.

LOL - I will call BS on porcupines falling from trees and landing on people, however that is a good tale a country person might tell a city person to pull their leg. I will have to remember that one.

 

[MelissaBaby]

As someone who grew up in a rural setting - yes, everyone knows that porcupines can and do climb trees, both for foraging and for being safe from predators if pursued and far from their den, though their first instinct is to go into the ground, or get nose first against something so the predator is confronted with only spines.

LOL - I will call BS on porcupines falling from trees and landing on people, however that is a good tale a country person might tell a city person to pull their leg. I will have to remember that one.

For the record, my character never said anything about falling on people, just that they sometimes fell.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

“You don’t know that the critters don't prefer it to gotten eaten by wolves.”

Just a quick catch in your first draft. I think you meant "getting" not "gotten", unless that's another Maine-ism I'm not familiar with.

As to the original question, I'm with Ruben. If someone told me porcupines climb trees, I'd believe it. But I didn't actually know it, and I wouldnt be the one to go around telling people it's true.

 

[LWulf]

I don't know how anyone could know whether porcupines can or not, without ever reading about it or watching a program that showed it. The only remaining factor opposed to those who know, is those who don't and how wild an imagination they have.

Personally, I didn't have to look it up. I remember watching a nature program that had a porcupine out on a limb, I believe there was a pine cone it was trying to get at. If I recall correctly, the program was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, which was a loooong time ago.