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Long-tailed porcupines’ appearances are somewhat rat-like. [4] [5] Their weight is usually around 1.7-2.3 kg but can be as small as 1.5 kg and their length can be between 27.9-48 cm excluding their tail which is usually up to 24 cm. [6] [4] To save themselves from predators including larger mammals, snakes and birds, their tails can be lost when grabbed but will not be regenerated.
Most porcupines are about 60–90 cm (25–36 in) long, with a 20–25 cm (8–10 in) long tail. Weighing 5–16 kg (12–35 lb), they are rounded, large, and slow, and use an aposematic strategy of defence. Porcupines' colouration consists of various shades of brown, grey and white.
The prehensile-tailed porcupines or coendous (genus Coendou) are found in Central and South America. [2] Two other formerly recognized Neotropical tree porcupine genera, Echinoprocta [3] and Sphiggurus, [4] have been subsumed into Coendou, since Sphiggurus was shown by genetic studies to be polyphyletic, while Echinoprocta nested within Coendou.
They vary in size from the relatively small long–tailed porcupine with body lengths of 27.9 to 48 cm (11.0 to 18.9 in), and a weight of 1.5 to 2.3 kg (3.3 to 5.1 lb), [2] to the much larger crested porcupines, which are 60 to 83 cm (24 to 33 in) long, discounting the tail, and weigh from 13 to 27 kg (29 to 60 lb). [3]
This porcupine can grow to forty inches long (1 m), but half of that is tail. It weighs about nine pounds (4.1 kg). No spines are found on the tail, which is long (330–485 mm (13.0–19.1 in)). Its feet are reflective of their arboreal lifestyle, well-adapted for gripping branches, with four long-clawed toes on each.
When porcupines are mating, they tighten their skin and hold their quills flat, so as not to injure each other. Mating may occur repeatedly until the female loses interest and climbs back into the tree. The North American porcupine has a long gestation period relative to other rodents, an average of 202 days. [38]
On a farm in Angola, a “long”-tailed creature scampered across the sand. The speckled animal might have been heading to its burrow or searching for a meal, but that didn’t really matter.
Coendou longicaudatus - Amazonian long-tailed porcupine; Coendou melanurus - Black-tailed hairy dwarf porcupine; Coendou mexicanus - Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine; Coendou nycthemera - Black dwarf porcupine; Coendou prehensilis - Brazilian porcupine; Coendou pruinosus - Frosted hairy dwarf porcupine; Coendou quichua - Andean porcupine