Maine’s 1,600 porcupine records make this one of the best-documented mammals in the state, and one place dominates the map: Acadia National Park alone accounts for 266, helping push Hancock County far ahead of every other county. Beyond the coast, records spread through York, Cumberland, and Penobscot and on into the working woods of the interior.
A slow climber with a sharp defense
The porcupine is Maine’s second-largest rodent after the beaver, a waddling, tree-climbing herbivore protected by a coat of quills. It cannot throw them; instead it turns its back, lashes its tail, and lets a would-be predator make the mistake. That defense lets it move slowly and feed openly, gnawing bark and twigs in winter and shifting to leaves, sedges, and garden plants in summer. Clipped hemlock tips under a feeding tree and bark stripped from trunks are often the first sign of one overhead.
Active all winter, busiest in the fall
Porcupines do not hibernate. Through the cold months they den in rock ledges and hollow logs, emerging to feed on inner bark and evergreen needles, sometimes for days from a single tree. Maine’s counts peak from May through August and rise again in October, which is also the breeding season, when normally solitary animals seek each other out.
Status in Maine
The porcupine is native to Maine and not listed as nonindigenous by USGS NAS. It is not specifically listed under Maine’s state-level conservation framework, and the IUCN ranks the species Least Concern globally.
Full species profile
