Brush-tailed porcupine

The brush-tailed porcupines are a genus, Atherurus, of Old World porcupines found in Asia and Africa.

Brush-tailed porcupines
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene to Recent
African brush-tailed porcupine in the National Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Hystricidae
Genus: Atherurus
F. Cuvier, 1829
Species

Atherurus africanus
Atherurus macrourus

Characteristics

The brush-tailed porcupines have bodies covered in quills like their New World relatives. These quills are shorter and not as visually prominent as those seen in the genus Hystrix, but considerably more so than in Trichys. They have a prominent tuft on the tip of their tails which leads to their common name. The tail breaks off easily when the animal is threatened.

Their bodies are long and somewhat rat-like. They are forest dwellers and nocturnal, and feed on vegetation, but may take insects or carrion. The animals may live in social groups usually numbering six to eight. The longevity record for a captive animal was almost 23 years.

Due to their small size (the typical brush-tailed porcupine weighs about 3 kg), it is a popular bushmeat to the urban and rural residents of Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon or Congo.

Species

The two species of Atherurus, an Asian and an African variety, are:


Predators

The brush-tailed porcupine has many native predators: leopards, large raptors and snakes; however, humans are their most prominent and constant predators. The brush-tailed porcupine is hunted in such large quantities, many in those areas fear that it is no longer a sustainable option.

References
  • Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1936 pp. ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
  • Jori, F., Lopez-béjar, M. & Houben, P. The biology and use of the African brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus, Gray, 1842)as a food animal. A review. Biodiversity and Conservation 7, 1417–1426 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008853113835
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