#0213 · 🦊 mammals
North American Porcupine
🇳🇱 Noord-Amerikaans Boomstekelvarken ·Erethizon dorsatum
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Silas Wareham · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © Cal Nickerson · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Chris Bentley · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Craig K. Hunt · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Susan Elliott · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Stephen DeHart · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Arthur Chapman · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- 8. © Kristina Stephens · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Susan Elliott · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. © Jordan · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The North American porcupine ( Erethizon dorsatum ), also known as the Canadian porcupine or common porcupine , is a large rodent in the New World porcupine family. The beaver is the only rodent in North America that is larger than the North American porcupine. The porcupine is a caviomorph rodent whose ancestors rafted across the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil over 30 million years ago, and then migrated to North America during the Great American Interchange after the...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 34,773 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- North American Porcupine
- Nederlands
- Noord-Amerikaans Boomstekelvarken
- scientific name
- Erethizon dorsatum
- class
- Mammalia
- order
- Rodentia
- family
- Erethizontidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 34,773
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Erethizontidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 44026, Wikidata Q10758828, GBIF 2437594, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.