The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park has announced its first ever birth of a Prehensile-tailed Porcupine (Coendou prehensilis). She’s been named Pollie. The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park is one of Florida's oldest continuously running attractions, having opened on May 20, 1893. Olivier, the Porcupette’s father, has been at the zoo since 1998 and is a star education animal. His mate, Miss Piggy, arrived in 2010 as a breeding companion and to ease Ollie’s show schedule.
In late 2011, Miss Piggy’s weight began to steadily increase. The zoo’s veterinary staff attempted to perform a couple of voluntary ultrasounds during her pregnancy, but due to normal gas pockets within a porcupine’s abdomen, they were unsuccessful in viewing the growing baby. After a gestation of roughly 203 days, the uncomfortable mother finally gave birth on August 2, to a baby weighing just about 12 ounces (396 grams). She was covered with long, soft, reddish quills at birth, but the thicker, sharper adult quills quickly began to appear.
Prehensile-tailed Porcupines are listed as a species of Least Concern due to their wide distribution across northern South America and a presumed large population.
( Photo Credit: St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, origin of text (altered slightly by me) unknown as it has gone from blog to blog. )
What a pretty little "girl" Pollie is! I hope she won't be too affected by her celebrity status but live a life as happy and normal (for a porcupine) as it can be at the zoo.
ReplyDeleteThe text is from Zooborns.com - zoo babies from all over the world. Warning: cute overload may occur.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jedediah - and thanks for the link to the site as well. Love your warning!
DeleteHey Scriptor!
ReplyDeleteI have been to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, Florida and it is one amazing place! You would love St. Augustine itself, it is one of my favorite places in Florida. I might have to do a post about it!
That porcupine is just too cute.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
ReplyDeleteYou know how I just love "cute" sheep and lambs - but Pollie really does put a whole new meaning to the word cute. She is just so adorable. Wonder how Graham would describe her!
ReplyDeleteWell, this validates my often said statement: "All creatures are cute when they are babies!"
ReplyDeletePollie is adorable. When I lived in South Lake Tahoe, I got off work one night at 2 a.m., and drove home. I saw something crawling across the road in front of me, but couldn't tell what it was, and couldn't avoid it. I obviously grazed it, and in my freaked out state, spent the rest of the night worrying that I had hit a person crawling across the road. I knew it wasn't, but, hey, anything can happen in Nevada, right?
ReplyDeleteNext morning, I went out to discover my right front tire covered in Porcupine quills. Yikes! But no porcupine anywhere near in sight.
I like the word "porcupette"...
ReplyDelete