North American Porcupine Claw

$10.00

North American Porcupines or Erethizon dorsatum are usually dark brown or black in color, with white highlights. They have a stocky body, a small face, short legs, and a short, thick tail.

Description

North American Porcupine Claw Replica measures 1.2 inches. North American Porcupine Claw is museum quality polyurethane cast. Made in the USA. Front Claw. Our precise claw can be used as a teaching tool, museum claw exhibit, home décor claw, or office décor claw.

North American Porcupines or Erethizon dorsatum are usually dark brown or black in color, with white highlights. They have a stocky body, a small face, short legs, and a short, thick tail.  The head-and-body length is 2.0 to 3.0 ft.

The North American porcupine or Erethizon dorsatum is the only native North American mammal with antibiotics in its skin. Those antibiotics prevent infection when a porcupine falls out of a tree and is stuck with its own quills upon hitting the ground. North American Porcupines or Erethizon dorsatum fall out of trees fairly often because they are highly tempted by the succulent buds and twigs at the ends of the branches.

The porcupine, the wolverine, and the skunk are the only North American mammals that have strongly contrasting black-and-white coloration, because they are the only mammals that benefit from letting other animals know where and what they are in the dark of night.

The most distinguishing feature of the North American porcupine or Erethizon dorsatum is its coat of quills. An adult porcupine or Erethizon dorsatum has about 30,000 quills that cover all of its body except its underbelly, face, and feet.

Quills are modified hairs formed into sharp, barbed, hollow spines. They are used primarily for defense, but also serve to insulate their bodies during winter. North American Porcupines or Erethizon dorsatum do not throw their quills, but when threatened, they contract the muscles near the skin, which causes the quills to stand up and out from their bodies.

When the quills are in this position, they become easier to detach from the body, especially when a porcupine swings its tail toward an attacker. The barbs at the tail tip become lodged in the flesh of an attacker and are difficult and painful to remove. The quills are normally flattened against the body and in this position are less easily dislodged.

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Additional information

Weight 1 lbs
Dimensions 1.2 in
North American Porcupine Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Erethizontidae
Subfamily: Erethizontinae
Genus: Erethizon
Species: E. dorsatum
Binomial name: Erethizon dorsatum
Conservation status: Least Concern – A least concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation. They do not qualify as threatened, near threatened, or (before 2001) conservation dependent.