North American Porcupine

Andrew and I spent about three hours at Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake in November of this year and had a wonderful wildlife sighting experience. One of the wildlife highlights was seeing a porcupine. 

I had stopped the car to look at some pronghorn antelope on the west side of the road and Andrew looked in some heavy brush trees on the east side of the road. When I got back I called out to Andrew wondering where he was. He yelled, "I see a porcupine." 

Looking down at a porcupine from a ridge above it. Its head is at the bottom, tucked down. 

I hadn't seen a wild porcupine since I was a young boy at our ranch outside of Kamas, Utah. This was Andrew's first experience. 

Andrew keeps a safe distance from the porcupine. 

He noted that it appeared sick. It was listless and had a white substance coming out of its mouth and/or nose. Our best guess is that it had rabies and was near death. 

The black head of the porcupine is to the left and you can see the white substance coming out of its mouth. Its tail is to the right. 

That puts our sighting on a sad note, but it was a thrill to see a porcupine again after so many years.