Idaho’s 241 porcupine records scatter across 32 counties, with Jefferson County well out in front. The species turns up from the cottonwood bottoms of the Snake River corridor to the high country of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, anywhere trees give it food and a place to climb.
A rodent that lives in trees
Second in size among North American rodents only to the beaver, the porcupine climbs on strong curved claws and feeds on bark, twigs, buds, and leaves, subsisting in winter largely on conifer needles and inner bark. Its roughly 30,000 quills are a purely passive defense, raised and shed on contact rather than thrown, and most predators give the animal a wide berth.
Active in every season
Porcupines do not hibernate, though they den up in the worst weather and may feed for days from a single winter tree. Idaho’s reports crest from March through May, when the animals travel more on the ground between patches of greening forage.
Status in Idaho
The porcupine is native to its mapped Idaho range, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state. It is not specifically listed under Idaho’s state-level conservation framework, and globally the IUCN treats it as Least Concern.
Full species profile
