Daily Zoo Animal: #18, prehensile-tailed porcupine.

[urbpan]

Prehensile-tailed porcupine (I think) Coendou prehensilis

I'm guessing on this one, because I didn't take close note of the signage, but I think this is the Brazilian or prehensile-tailed porcupine. What I know about them: nocturnal, arboreal, herbivorous, and cute as the dickens. The porcupines are a strange group of rodents. Their quills make the unmistakable, but species in North America, South America, and Africa, may not be especially closely related to one another. The Old World and New World species almost certainly evolved quills independently of one another. Of course, outside of the rodent order, quills evolved independently out of the fur of hedgehogs, tenrecs, and echidnas.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Pavement ant. Also, someone anonymously commented saying that my second photo was not a pavement ant. Where's E.O. Wilson when we need him?

Comments

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I knew an echidna once that had an obsession with shoes. Anyone who stepped into its pen would end up with an amorous echidna sniffing and and walking over and generally drooling all over their shoes - it was kinda cute.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Besides, why do you need smarts when you're covered in spikes?