Those Damn Porcupines Will Eat Anything

    Growing up in Indiana, I never knew much about porcupines.  I did know that they had sharp quills, that they could throw at you if they thought they were in danger, but that was about the extent of my knowledge.  

    One of the things I loved during all my years working at the BC Forest Service were the coffee breaks, and all of the stories that were told by the “old timers”.   It was there that I learned some fascinating things about porcupines; their strange tastes, and destructive appetite.  It seems that porcupines crave and chew on things that I always thought were inedible.  They love to eat plywood and the car parts.

    Porcupines love salt and that includes the salt in plywood glue and wood preservatives.  They will eat the creosote coating on fence posts, tires on vehicles, radiator hoses, and even objects covered in human sweat, like tool handles, clothes, and leather.

    During our Forestry coffee breaks, I heard many a story about the damage that porcupines did to structures made of plywood out in the bush.  They would gnaw away big chucks of unprotected plywood.  When we made the cabins or outhouses in the Ozalenka Valley or in other wilderness areas, the lower part of the buildings were always covered with tin roofing, or else they would fall victim to the porcupine’s appetite.  

    The biggest surprise to me about porcupine appetites was their love for tires and the plastic insulation that coated wires.  I heard many stories about hikers and hunters who had driven way out in the bush, leaving their trucks parked and alone for several days, as they ventured off into the wilderness.    Days later, when they returned, they tried unsuccessfully to start their trucks, only to discover that porcupines had chewed up the vehicle’s wiring or tires.  These events always ended in a very long and unexpected hike back to civilization for help.

    In the photo above, avid hiker Glen Stanley, secures his truck behind the fencing around the perimeter of Ozalenka Valley Trail parking area.  The fencing was put up to keep the porcupines from damaging the vehicles.

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