What is the maximal age a North American porcupine reaches?
An adult North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) usually gets as old as 18 years.
North American porcupines are around 210 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 491 grams (1.08 lbs) and measure 100 cm (3′ 4″). As a member of the Erethizontidae family (genus: Erethizon), their offspring is 1 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 83.7 cm (2′ 9″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
The North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), also known as the Canadian porcupine or common porcupine, is a large rodent in the New World porcupine family. The beaver is the only rodent in North America that is larger than the North American porcupine. The porcupine is a caviomorph rodent whose ancestors rafted across the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil over 40 million years ago, and then migrated to North America during the Great American Interchange after the Isthmus of Panama rose 3 million years ago.
Animals of the same family as a North American porcupine
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Erethizontidae):
- Stump-tailed porcupine bringing the scale to 832 grams
- Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Rothschild’s porcupine growing to a mass of 2 kgs (4.41 lbs)
- Bahia porcupine bringing the scale to 999 grams
- Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine bringing the scale to 751 grams
- Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine growing to a mass of 2 kgs (4.41 lbs)
- Black dwarf porcupine growing to a mass of 3 kgs (6.61 lbs)
- Brown hairy dwarf porcupine bringing the scale to 736 grams
- Black-tailed hairy dwarf porcupine growing to a mass of 1.9 kgs (4.19 lbs)
- Black dwarf porcupine growing to a mass of 3 kgs (6.61 lbs)
Animals that reach the same age as North American porcupine
With an average age of 18 years, North American porcupine are in good companionship of the following animals:
- South African springhare usually reaching 14.5 years
- Antilopine kangaroo usually reaching 16 years
- Bahamian raccoon usually reaching 21 years
- Bennett’s tree-kangaroo usually reaching 20 years
- Goeldi’s marmoset usually reaching 17.83 years
- Plains zebra usually reaching 20 years
- African palm civet usually reaching 18.5 years
- Thomson’s gazelle usually reaching 15.17 years
- Chital usually reaching 20.75 years
- Fringed myotis usually reaching 18.25 years
Animals with the same number of babies North American porcupine
The same number of babies at once (1) are born by:
- Grant’s forest shrew
- Black-eared flying fox
- Egyptian free-tailed bat
- Tapeti
- Matschie’s tree-kangaroo
- Felou gundi
- Peters’s trumpet-eared bat
- Wedge-capped capuchin
- Sloggett’s vlei rat
- Australian sea lion
Weighting as much as North American porcupine
A fully grown North American porcupine reaches around 7.42 kg (16.36 lbs). So do these animals:
- Tana River mangabey weighting 7.08 kilos (15.61 lbs) on average
- Tasmanian devil weighting 8.2 kilos (18.08 lbs) on average
- Peruvian spider monkey weighting 7.09 kilos (15.63 lbs) on average
- Hoolock gibbon weighting 6.7 kilos (14.77 lbs) on average
- Fishing cat weighting 8.83 kilos (19.47 lbs) on average
- Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo weighting 6.65 kilos (14.66 lbs) on average
- Javan surili weighting 6.57 kilos (14.48 lbs) on average
- Purple-faced langur weighting 7.53 kilos (16.6 lbs) on average
- Milne-Edwards’s sifaka weighting 6.57 kilos (14.48 lbs) on average
- Thomas’s langur weighting 6.69 kilos (14.75 lbs) on average
Animals as big as a North American porcupine
Those animals grow as big as a North American porcupine:
- Smooth-coated otter with 78.8 cm (2′ 8″)
- Common wombat with 98.6 cm (3′ 3″)
- Sharpe’s grysbok with 67.9 cm (2′ 3″)
- Zebra duiker with 87.5 cm (2′ 11″)
- Western long-beaked echidna with 67.5 cm (2′ 3″)
- Black-fronted duiker with 94.4 cm (3′ 2″)
- Goitered gazelle with 95.8 cm (3′ 2″)
- Hamadryas baboon with 67.5 cm (2′ 3″)
- European badger with 70.7 cm (2′ 4″)
- Fishing cat with 77.9 cm (2′ 7″)