When you move into a new home, one concern is always the new neighbors. Will you get along with them? Are they friendly, or are they a bit… prickly? For this family, their new prickly neighbor brings them nothing but joy!
Meet Alfred the porcupine!
When this family bought their house in Maine, they soon discovered that Alfred was a nightly visitor. Alfred is a North American porcupine, a large rodent species native to the northern United States and Canada.
Despite their many spines, known as quills, porcupines prefer to flee when confronted. And despite what many wive’s tales attest, they don’t shoot their quills. Generally, these creatures pose no threat to people if you don’t threaten or corner them.
Entranced by their new spiky neighbor, the family created a TikTok page to chronicle Alfred the porcupine’s nightly visits. In the videos, he adorably munches on apples and the occasional watermelon.
Despite the lighthearted nature of the videos, the creator often provides educational information to the viewers. For example in response to one comment noting the size of Alfred’s claws, the video’s creator noted, “Those are tree climbing claws, but they come in handy for eating, he uses them so daintily with food.”
North American porcupines are an arboreal species, which means that they climb trees. The creator is completely correct, they utilize those claws to climb trees and manipulate food, relying on their defensive spines for most of their defenses!
In another video, they also mention another fun fact about North American porcupines, “Porcupines have terrible eyesight, but excellent sense of smell and hearing.”
Before sharing one last video with you, we do want to make one important note. Alfred the porcupine is definitely adorable, but the legality of feeding wildlife varies from state to state and county to county. Before watching these videos and immediately going and feeding your local wildlife, please be aware of the legislation in your area. If you do choose to feed any wildlife, ensure that you provide them with food that is safe for them to consume! This will vary from species to species.
With that said, enjoy this video of our new favorite neighborhood porcupine, Alfred!
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.
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