How do I find a porcupine?
I've asked a dozen different rangers and mountain guides for advice on how to find a porcupine. A couple rangers described porcupines as "a real nuisance" and "a menace" in Death Canyon, but I haven't had any luck meeting this menace.
As soon as I see or hear one, I'll resolve to any answer that proved useful in helping me meet a porcupine! I'll push the market close date until that happens — I've been on the lookout since December and it could take patience. In the meantime, I'll tip for any porcupine information that's new to me!
I'll only consider ethical ways to meet a porcupine in the wild, so leaving a saucer of salt outside my tent, for example, wouldn't count.
It's been a great wildlife season and I've thoroughly enjoyed recognizing my neighborhood elk and dodging my first flying squirrel. But I haven't had any luck with porcupines, so I'm extending the close date by a year.
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1.00I'll keep looking though! This season I've also become obsessed with trying to meet the owl who hoots outside my window. I've been waking up at night, staking out the tree I think he lives in, asking neighbors and rangers for advice, reading research papers on owl hunting .... I might as well look for porcupines at night while I'm at it.
@Alice They spend the hot/sunny parts of the day in trees, and forage around on the ground near dawn and dusk.
@FutureOwl I didn't realize till recently how often porcupines fall out of trees (and risk self-quilling)! I haven't seen any porcupines in trees yet, though last week I did come across a black bear cub 50 feet up a whitebark pine, snacking on pinecones and swaying in the wind.