Atherurus macrourus

Geographic Range

Atherurus macrourus (Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines) are distributed across southeast Asia. They are found in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysian Peninsula, Malacca by Lyon, eastern Assam (India), Hupei, Hainan, southcentral China (Yunnan, Szechuan, and Guangxi provinces), Sumatra, Burma, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and adjacent Indo-chinese islands.

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental oriental
  • native native
• oceanic islands oceanic islands
  • native native

Habitat

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines are terrestrial and nocturnal. They rest during the day in burrows, crevices, termitaries, under and in fallen trees, in holes among tree roots, caves, or cavities along stream banks. They can live in elevations up to altitudes of 3000 meters. Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines prefer to live by plantations or cultivated areas, river forests, forest islands, as well as primary and secondary forests. These animals may dig burrows in soft floors of rainforests, and are often found near water. Rock dens are found to be intricate, having three entries spaced 2 meters apart, feeding into tunnels 3.5 meters long, showing that species of hystricids can be productive lodge diggers. Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines do not cushion their dens with plant materials.

• Habitat Regions
• tropical tropical
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest forest
• rainforest rainforest
• scrub forest scrub forest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural agricultural
• riparian riparian
• caves

Physical Description

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines are rat-like and quite slender. They have an almost entirely spiny body, though quills are soft on the under parts, head, and legs. Fur coloration on the upper back is black-brown to grey-brown. These animals possess short and stout limbs, with short, rounded ears. Eyes and ears are quite small. Individual hairs have whitish tips. The underside (ventral side) fur coloration is dirty white to light brown. Their roundish spines are flattened and stiletto-like, with fluted grooves on the upper surface. On the lower back, round and thicker bristles are interspersed between the spines resulting in a distinct terminal tuft. The tuft is whitish to creamy buff in color. Each bristle is thick and scaly and contains a chain of flattened disks that rattles when shaken. This serves as a warning to deter predators. On the upper back, flexible spines are between the fluted spikes, and the longest spines are located on the mid-upper side region. Spines can be about 10 cm long. They have a brush-like tuft on the tip of the tail.

These animals are agile and can run, climb, and swim well. Their fore- and hind-feet are five toed, partially webbed and possess blunt, straight claws. However, the large toe is reduced. The soles are naked and are fitted with pads. The skull lacks or has a very weak postorbital process.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• ornamentation ornamentation

Reproduction

The spines on the backs of females can make mating problematic for male brush-tailed porcupines. Females can be aggressive and rapidly move backward into a male (backward attack). African brush-tailed porcupine ( Atherurus africanus ) females are not aggressive toward males they are familiar with, but are very aggressive when meeting unfamiliar males. Therefore, a complicated ritual of appeasement performed by males. In other members of the genus Hystrix , the female puts her tail up and the male stands on his hind legs, supporting himself with his hands on the back of the female during mating.

• Mating System
• monogamous monogamous

Both parents participate in raising the young. They breed throughout the year in regions with more favorable climates, otherwise breeding seasonally in the most favorable season. They have 1 to 2 litters a year, with 1 to 2 offspring per litter. No information was found concerning the gestation period of this species, but the related Atherurus africanus has a pregnancy that lasts 100 to 110 days. Females have two pairs of lateral thoracic mammae, and give birth in maternity chambers cushioned with grass or fallen leaves.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• year-round breeding year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• viviparous viviparous

Newborns are very active and agile within hours after they are born. They are highly developed nidifugous animals, with eyes open soon after birth. Because they are very small in size, (3% of the mother's body weight) they have to be nursed for a long time. Both parents participate in guarding the young, taking them for their first excursions and watching over them.

• Parental Investment
• precocial precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

Hystrids are reported to be long-lived. However, not much is known about the lifespan of Atherurus macrourus in the wild. In captivity, Atherurus africanus has been reported to live 23 years, Hystrix brachyura , 21.

Behavior

Atherurus macrourus live in family clans of up to four to eight members, who share common runs, trails, excrement depositories, feeding places, refuges, and territories. Dwellings are, as a rule, not inhabited by one animal, but rather by a group. Typical groups consist of an adult couple and a varying number of young and growing animals. Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines provide extensive care of the young. These animals forage nocturnally and alone, but shelter in groups during the day. Atherurus macrourus individuals are extremely cautious and quiet after they have left their dens, and seem nervous when foraging for food. Porcupines move quickly and can also climb. If these animals are disturbed or pursued, they can run fast enough to get away from humans. Atherurus macrourus settle in any area with sufficient food and natural refuges, or where they can build their own dens. These animals are highly adaptive and can find homes in many different habitats. If food supplies become sparse permanently, these animals leave.

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial fossorial
• nocturnal nocturnal
• motile motile
• sedentary sedentary
• social social

Home Range

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines in search of food may range widely, travelling distances of up to 15 km (9 miles) per night, depending on the availability of the food in the area. Family clans can have widely overlapping territories, refuges, extrement depositories, feeding places, runs and trails. They can have tunnels about 3.5m (11 feet) long.

Communication and Perception

The tendency towards inflation of the facial portion of the skull, and the enlargement of nasal bones is less pronounced in Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines than in other porcupines . The enlarged nasal cavity may allow the animals to have a heightened sense of smell, or it may serve to help retrieving moisture from the air. As in most mammals, chemical cues are widely used in communication. Atherurus macrourus rattle the small cups at the end of their tails, which discourages their predators.

• Communication Channels
• visual visual
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones pheromones
• scent marks scent marks
• vibrations vibrations

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• vibrations vibrations
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

These animals strictly forage during the night. They are herbivorous and usually feed on vegetation. They enjoy tree bark, roots, tubers, leaves, bulbs, and fallen fruits. However, they sometimes also feed on cultivated crops, insects, and carrion.

• Primary Diet
• herbivore herbivore
  • folivore folivore
  • lignivore

• Animal Foods
• carrion carrion
• insects

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• roots and tubers
• wood, bark, or stems
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit
• flowers

Predation

Large carnivores such as leopards, humans, large owls, canids , and other cats , hunt porcupines. Atherurus species are protected from most predators by their defensive spines.

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• aposematic aposematic

Ecosystem Roles

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines eat fallen seeds and may disperse some seeds. Such pits and holes created by porcupines can be an important small habitat for sensitive plants. Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines also burrow dens in rocks and soil, and tunneling may provide some aeration of the surrounding soil and create habitat for invertebrates and other, small vertebrates.

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds
• creates habitat
• soil aeration soil aeration

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines are hunted for their meat.

• Positive Impacts
• food food

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines may overfeed on crops, including casava, sweet potatoes, bananas, peanuts, maize, pineapple, mango, and sugarcane. Their habit of eating the a ring of cambium layer around the base of trees results in the death of trees when their vascular tissue is destroyed. Atherurus africanus is known to be a carrier of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium atheruri .

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • bites or stings
  • carries human disease
• crop pest

Conservation Status

Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines are not yet endangered nor threatened

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Tanya Dewey (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

Ginn Choe (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (editor, instructor), Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

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