New York’s 1,612 North American porcupine records spread from the Shawangunk ridge at Minnewaska State Park, the largest single cluster in the state record, north through the Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau. Ulster County alone accounts for 626 of them, with St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties carrying the northern end of the range.
A winter animal that eats trees
Porcupines do not hibernate. Through New York’s long winters they feed on the inner bark of hemlock and other trees, often working a single favored feeding tree near the den, and records hold in every month of the year. April and May run strongest, when the animals shift to fresh buds and leaves, but clipped twigs and broad incisor marks under a hemlock can reveal one in any season.
Slow, well-armored, and fond of salt
A porcupine’s defense is its coat of loosely attached quills, and it relies on that armor rather than speed, climbing deliberately and sheltering in rock ledges, hollow logs, and root masses. The record’s two top parks, Minnewaska and John Boyd Thacher, are both known for exposed cliff and ledge, classic denning cover. Porcupines also crave salt and will gnaw tool handles, plywood, and anything else that carries a trace of sweat.
Status in New York
The porcupine is native to its New York range, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state. It is not specifically listed under New York’s state-level conservation framework, and the IUCN ranks the species Least Concern globally.
Full species profile
