You may wonder what you have to fear from porcupines. Well, unless you fall on one or get too close, injury from their quills won’t be a problem. Porcupines are fairly slow moving (Speed isn’t the defense mechanism they evolved) and usually ignore us if we ignore them. The threat that porcupines do pose is to our equipment, not to our person. Like many wild animals with diets low in sodium, porcupines crave salt. (Ever wonder why so many of them die on the side of the highway??) If they find anything salty, they will chew it and destroy it in an attempt to ingest the salt in it.
- For us, that means any equipment that has absorbed our sweat is at risk. This includes:
- Hip belts and shoulder straps on packs
- Hiking boots and shoes
- Walking sticks
- Clothing
- Another source: Urine in another source of salt that attracts porcupines. Therefore, you will sometimes see them hovering around outdoor biffies. This should also serve as a reminder always to use pit toilets where they are provided. Otherwise, porcupines and other animals will dig up urine-soaked soil in an attempt to get at the salt it holds. In high-traffic areas, this can have a devastating effect on the vegetation.
- Prevention: The best thing to do in porcupine country is to keep all your loose equipment in your vestibule. This includes your packs and boots. As a rule, porcupines will not try to chew through your tent to get to the items, but they will certainly attack them if they are lying about. This is yet another reason to keep a tight camp.
- Range: Porcupines live just about anywhere where wood (their chief source of food) is available, including the prairie. You are most at risk of a porcupine “attack” in high-traffic alpine campsites, since the porcupines learn that salt is available here.
