Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.
ERETHIZONTIDAE - PORCUPINES
Two species of arboreal, forest rodent. The head is small and rounded with a naked face, long, stiff whiskers and bulbous snout. The eyes and ears are small, the latter often difficult to see within the spiny pelage. The body is thickset with short legs. The pelage is covered with thick, sharp spines each with minute barbed scales at the tip. Spines detach easily into the skin of a predator. Forefeet with four toes bearing long, sharped claws adapted for grasping branches. Hindfeet with reduced thumb. Feet have a single broad pad, the digits folding inwards over this pad into a sort of “fist”. Tail muscular and broad-based, thinning towards tip, the upper surface of the tip bearing a naked pad and the undersurface a patch of thick, stiff hairs. Tail is prehensile with a flexible tip, curling spiral-like around branches in an anticlockwise direction.
Skull: Broad interorbital with small processes. Brain case broadens behind eyes. Large bullae. Auditory canal located laterally.
Coendou: Spiny Porcupines
A single species of large porcupine with obvious spines scattered between thick pelage.
Sphiggurus: Hairy Porcupines
A single species of small porcupine with spines barely visible amongst long, soft, woolly pelage.
REFERENCES
Diaz MM & Barquez RM 2002 - Los Mamíferos de Jujuy, Argentina - LOLA
Emmons LH & Feer F 1999 - Mamíferos de los Bosques Húmedos de América Tropical - FAN Bolivia
Redford K 1992 - Mammals of the Neotropics Vol 2: The Southern Cone Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - University of Chicago Press.
