Porcupines a rare find in Sierra
By Alex Breitler, Stockton Record
It is one of the most recognizable creatures wandering our woods.
But in more than 50 years exploring the Sierra Nevada, Steve Stocking has spotted the squat, prickly porcupine perhaps three times.
“One was, maybe, 10 or 15 years ago. But I haven’t seen any recently,” said Stocking, an outdoor enthusiast who lives in San Andreas and volunteers at Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
The slow-moving rodent – once despised for snacking on valuable timber – is a rare find in the Sierra Nevada these days, according to an unscientific survey by a Twain Harte-based environmental group.
The group asked thousands of people to report porcupine sightings last year, across millions of acres of public and private land from Lake Tahoe to the southern Sierra.
Only 14 living porcupines were spotted waddling across roads or clinging to trees.
In October of 2010 a dog I was taking care of had the not so pleasant pleasure of making the acquaintance of one 3 feet off the trail on the Cold Creek Trail. He had it cornered in a hole under some roots. He even had a less enjoyable time when I extracted the quills from his face and mouth. Wasn’t a whole lot of fun for me either!
Over last summer, I had seen a dead porcupine on Hwy 50 near Echo Summit.
Alpine Animal Hospital keeps the rent paid from pulling quills from dogs from Fallen Leaf, but it does seem there are fewer around.
2 yeas ago i saw a juvenile up near the trail head at Fallen Leaf….cute little critter. Go porc-ers!
“He had it cornered in a hole under some roots”
I guess “bigpicture” is admitting he/she doesnt pay much attention to Edlordao County leash laws?
Hey Citizen Kane, it is legal to have dogs off of a leash in the woods. I guess you dont pay much attention to El dorado county leash laws.
Citizen Kane,
Your totally right, that’s me, “Public Enemy #1!”. I should be run out of town for my indiscretion. I also got a parking ticket once. Hang me from the tallest tree!
P.S. If you only knew how nefarious I really am. I regularly do 38mph in 35mph zones. It’s just a compulsion to be evil! MuHaHaHaHa!
We have always had porcupine families living in our valley. They are a wondrous sight. The little ones are just precious. The cost was $450 to remove a snout full of quills on the neighbors dog. I think a better way to get a true count is to say there aren’t any and see how many people dispute it.
I just saw a porcupine last week while cross country skiing up near Angora Ridge.It was waddling across the path at a very slow pace and quite a site to see!
This study really has no good scientific or statistical ground. I reported some of the sightings myself, but not all of my actual porcupine sightings were given to the study as I couldn’t remember the dates and times of all of my encounters. Plus, I feel that the organization didn’t really do good outreach on the survey. I only heard of it by word-of-mouth from a local wildlife biologist.
Since I moved to Tahoe about 7 years ago, I’ve ran into numerous porcupines thanks to my dog (Placer County, on F.S. lands)who goes mad once she smells one; seen them on the bike path next to the Lower Truckee River; seen numerous roadkill critters during the spring (especially around Tallac/Taylor Creek area). My partner has been living here for the last two decades and doesn’t recall seeing them until about 10 – 8 years ago, and the majority of the sightings have been over the last 5 years, thanks to the dog. We have seen porcupines of all age classes, I’ve even experienced extremely large animals climb trees to get away from the dog (bless that porcupines instinct to just get away and not smack the dog’s face with quills).
A more scientific population study is needed to accurately determine if Sierra porcupines had indeed rebounded from the extermination practices of the past. My personal observations lead me to conclude yes.
And, the dog has retracted her off-leash privileges in forest habitat likely to contain porcupines during the summer/fall season, pretty much every where in the forest surrounding The Basin’s urban areas. She’s has to see the vet to remove them as she won’t let us go near her face, it’s a fight to the death in her open. There’s always bikejoring with her:)