Prehensile-tailed Porcupine Coendou prehensilis

The Prehensile-tailed Porcupines are native to Central and South America. They are large, tree-climbing rodents. The ground-dwelling African/Eurasian porcupines and even the tree porcupines of North America are totally different genera.

The one shown is called the Brazilian (Prehensile-tailed) Porcupine and is native not only to Brazil but also to much of northern South America, including northern Argentina. They are shy, mainly solitary, not aggressive, mainly nocturnal and vegetarian. They grow to about a metre long, half of which is tail.

The body is covered in light-tipped spines but the long prehensile tail is without spines and enables the animal to secure itself to branches in its tree-dwelling habitat. The nose and mouth are a large fleshy pink ball. Young are born with long ginger hair which develops into spines.