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<p>When the Pennsylvania Game Commission implemented a hunting season on porcupines in 2011, furbearer biologist Matt Lovallo was a little surprised by the resulting harvest.</p><p>That first season, hunters took a little more than 10,000 porcupines.</p><p>&#8220;I was surprised that people had that level of interest,&#8221; Lovallo said. &#8220;Going into it I had no idea what to expect.&#8221;</p><p>Interestingly, while the season limit for porcupines is 10, more than 50 percent of the hunters who harvest a porcupine only take one, and it&#8217;s usually incidental.</p><p>Since 2011, the porcupine harvest has ranged between 12,000 and 15,000 annually. While that may appear surprising, it doesn&#8217;t seem to be having an impact on the state&#8217;s porcupine population.</p><p>Lovallo said, based on hunter surveys and reports from Wildlife Conservation Officers, the porcupine population is expanding geographically into the southern counties and the northwest region. In the northeast, Lovallo said the porcupine population is established and some expansion has occurred along the southern fringe of the region.</p><p>While porcupines may be spreading out, hunters who target them remain few and far between. The majority of porcupine harvests occur when hunters are pursuing other game and happen to come across one, or when they are caught damaging a property due to their appetite for tree bark and wood.</p><p>Kevin Wenner, biologist for the PGC&#8217;s Northeast Region, said he hasn&#8217;t really talked to any hunters who pursue porcupines. Still, the region office does receive complaints about porcupines every year.</p><p>&#8220;The complaints are primarily about damage to porches, decks, wood siding and log homes,&#8221; Wenner said. &#8220;A week ago I took a call from someone who said something had nipped off the tips of an arborvitae hedge and left them all over the ground. Right away I assumed porcupine.&#8221;</p><p>The current porcupine season runs from Sept. 1 to March 31, except during the two-week firearms deer season. Recently, the PGC board has discussed listing porcupines as a furbearer, allowing them to be trapped as well as hunted. The move could possibly increase the harvest and decrease complaints.</p><p>Lovallo is analyzing what impact the move would have on the porcupine population, and right now he doesn&#8217;t think it would be significant. The harvest has increased since 2011, even though hunter participation is down.</p><p>And while it&#8217;s not known exactly how many porcupines exist in the state, Wenner said classifying them as a furbearer and having a trapping season would allow the agency to better track hunter participation, effort and even how the harvested animals are being utilized.</p><p>Like other furbearers such as raccoon and fox, there is a market for porcupines, Lovallo said.</p><p>&#8220;There is a fair amount of commercial interest in the guard hairs of a porcupine. They can sell for as much as $20 an ounce,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The claws are also used as well, mainly for Native American ceremonial head dress.&#8221;</p><p>If guard hairs or claws from a porcupine are to be sold, they must be removed from the animal, which Lovallo said could be a time-consuming process. The re-classification as a furbearer would allow the entire animal to be sold.</p><p>Lovallo said it will take a few more years of looking at trends in harvest and hunter effort before he has an idea of porcupine numbers and interest among those pursuing them. The commercial demand for porcupine parts will also influence hunter interest and possibly the harvest, he added.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure what to expect,&#8221; Lovallo said. &#8220;Until we learn more about what the trends look like over another two to four years, we&#8217;ll have more direction and can adjust things.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Porcupine populations have expanded in the state, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission reports the harvest has also increased since 2011. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_porcupine-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Porcupine populations have expanded in the state, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission reports the harvest has also increased since 2011. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pennsylvania Game Commission </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>PGC looking into ways to reduce damage caused by porcupines</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Porcupine predator? </strong></p><p>When the fisher was re-introduced into the state in the mid-1990s it was widely believed they would prey on porcupines. Fishers are one of the few predators that can circumvent a porcupine&#8217;s quills by flipping it onto it&#8217;s back.</p><p>Lovallo said a study conducted by Indiana University of Pennsylvania examining the stomach contents of fishers found that porcupine was a fairly common prey. Deer also ranked high in the findings - but Lovallo said it was from carcasses that were scavenged and not killed by fishers. Also, meadow voles, cottontail rabbits and even the remains of other fishers have been found in the stomach content study.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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