Trichys fasciculata

Geographic Range

Long-tailed porcupines are endemic to southeast Asia. They are found in the entire area bordered on the west and south by Sumatra and bordered on the east and south by Borneo. Their distribution is bordered to the north by the Malay peninsula.

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental oriental
  • native native

Habitat

Long-tailed porcupines live in several different habitats and are predominantly terrestrial, preferring to live in burrows, caves, and fissures in or around fallen trees. Although they also climb trees and shrubs in search of food. They inhabit subtropical and tropical moist broadleaf forests such as rain forests, peat swamp forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland rain forests, montane rain forests, and heath forests. They also inhabit montane alpine meadows and shrublands, along with subtropical and tropical coniferous forests. They sometimes occur in mangrove forests. They have been found at elevations as high as 1159 m.

• Habitat Regions
• tropical tropical
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland savanna or grassland
• forest forest
• rainforest rainforest

• Wetlands
• swamp swamp

Physical Description

Long-tailed porcupines are the smallest members of the family Hystricidae, resembling spiny rats. They can weigh from 1.7 kg to 2.3 kg, and can be up to 48 cm long from the head to the base of the tail. Tail length can be up to 23 cm long. The long tail can break off from the rest of the body, potentially saving its owner from predation. More females than males are found without their tails. Perhaps the males hold the females by their tail during mating, causing the tail to come off. Once lost, the tail cannot be regenerated. Long-tailed porcupines have four toes on their front legs and five toes on their back legs. Long-tailed porcupines are good climbers, because of their broad paws.

Long-tailed porcupines are black or brown on the upper body and white on the under body. Except for the head and underside, which are covered with hair, long-tailed porcupines are covered with flattened spines that are dark brown in color at the ends and white at the tip. This species has the shortest spines in the family Hystricidae . None of the quills are more than 5 cm long. There are hairs, similar to bristles, between the spines. Scales cover most of the length of the brown tail, which is tipped with hollow quills. These brush-like quills are concentrated at the rear and the hindquarters. Unlike other porcupines, when shaken, these quills do not produce any rattling sound. No information was found on physical differences, such as size, between males and females.

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

Reproduction

The size of the male and the density of his quills seem to be a determining factor for females in choosing a mate. However, chemical cues are also expected to play a large role for the female in choosing a mate. The strong decaying-wood odor of porcupines probably attracts males and females to each other during the breeding season. When a female is ready to mate, she vocalizes a mating call, which attracts males to her. The males must then fight each other to be her mate. Males that win battles with other males may then be chosen by a female to be her mate. The winner is normally the largest and oldest porcupine, and he must guard the female from other suitors for three days. No specific information on mating systems has been found for T. fasciculata , other than that it is similar to other porcupines in its family.

The breeding season for porcupines is between September and November, but females are only sexually active for about a month (if they breed within that month). If the female does not breed within that month, she becomes sexually active again in another month. Females begin breeding at one year of age, ovulation often begins at 18 months of age. Leading up to the breeding season, females exhibit anxiousness and anticipation by gnawing their teeth on objects. They are also more vocal; chattering their teeth more than usual. Males also exhibit unusual behavior during this time period. They whine louder, and they travel farther than normal. These porcupines mate at night. After a gestation period of about seven months, one or two young "porcupettes" are born. Specific information for T. fasciculata is not known, but it is thought to be similar to other members of its family.

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

No specific information on parental investment in T. fasciculata is available, but their reproduction is thought to be similar to other Old World porcupines Hystricidae . In related species, young are born with their eyes open and quills, incisors, and premolar teeth present. The mother takes care of her newborn though the summer months. Females nurse their young, which also begin to incorporate other foods into their diets relatively early.

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

Lifespan/Longevity

A captive individual lived more than 10 years, no information on wild longevity is available. Other porcupine species often live 5 to 6 years in the wild.

Behavior

Long-tailed porcupines make shelters in burrows, caves, trees, and other natural cavities. They are nocturnal animals, spending most of the day in underground shelters. Although T. fasciculata are primarily ground-dwelling animals, they are also very nimble climbers. When running along the forest floor, T. fasciculata holds its tail straight up. This porcupine fluffs and widens its quills and pounds its feet when frightened.

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal arboreal
• terricolous
• nocturnal nocturnal
• motile motile
• sedentary sedentary
• solitary solitary

Home Range

No information on home ranges of T. fasciculata was found.

Communication and Perception

Male porcupines will “sing” either in a low or a high pitched whine when they are sexually excited. Mothers will communicate with their young using voice sounds to direct their offspring where to go. Sometimes the offspring will answer with whimperings. Specific information on communication for T. fasciculata was not found.

• Communication Channels
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

• Perception Channels
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Long-tailed porcupines are mainly herbivorous, eating fruits, seeds, bamboo shoots, and the cambium layer of trees, although their diet can also include invertebrates. They will climb trees and shrubs in search of food

• Primary Diet
• herbivore herbivore
  • folivore folivore
  • lignivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

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

Predation

Long-tailed porcupines seem to have the ability to lose their tail, potentially enabling them to escape predation when the tail is grabbed. There are no documented predators of long-tailed porcupines, but many larger mammals, snakes, or birds of prey are potential predators,

Ecosystem Roles

Because porcupines feed on the cambium layer of a tree, the tree will then die. The death of a tree is ecologically significant. For example, dead trees may be important habitats for several species of birds.

• Ecosystem Impact
• creates habitat

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Some native people believe that the tail of long-tailed porcupines has some value. They remove it from the rest of the porcupine hide. The use of the tail by native peoples has never been fully documented.

• Positive Impacts
• body parts are source of valuable material

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Long-tailed porcupines are sometimes considered nuisance species because they destroy certain crops (i.e. pineapple crops). By eating the cambium layer of a tree, they can also cause the death of trees.

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Conservation Status

Long-tailed porcupines are not currently threatened. However, under the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972/1976, long-tailed porcupines are cited as “Totally Protected” in the Malaysian Peninsula.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Tanya Dewey (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

Ariane Reister (author), Kalamazoo College, Ann Fraser (editor, instructor), Kalamazoo College.

References

Costello, D. 1966. The World of the Porcupine . New York: J. B. Lippincott Company.

Dworetzky, T. 1998. Classic Behavior: How Does a Female Porcupine Select a Mate? Carefully, Very Carefully. National Wildlife , Vol. 36 No. 4. Accessed October 18, 2005 at http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?issueID=18&articleID=148 .

Medway, L. 1965. Mammals of Borneo: Field Keys and an Annotated Checklist . Singapore: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Medway, L. 1969. The Wild Mammals of Malaya . London: Oxford University Press.

Roze, U. 1989. The North American Porcupine . Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Schemnitz, S. 1994. "Porcupines" (On-line). Accessed October 18, 2005 at http://wildlifedamage.unl.edu/handbook/handbook/allPDF/ro_b81.pdf .

Wright, J. 2004. "And You Thought I, Quill, Was Just A Big Rodent" (On-line). Accessed October 18, 2005 at http://bsi.montana.edu/web/web/template/ViewArticle.vm/articleid/16892 .

2004. African brush-tailed porcupine. Pp. 362-363 in Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia , Vol. 16: Mammals V, Second Edition. New York: Gale.

"BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION SHARING SERVICE (BISS)" (On-line). Accessed November 20, 2005 at http://www.arcbc.org/cgi-bin/abiss.exe/spd?tx=MA&spd=10896 .

2005. "Ecoregions containing Long-tailed Porcupine, Trichys fasciculata" (On-line). Accessed October 18, 2005 at http://worldwildlife.org/wildfinder/searchBySpecies.cfm?fClass=&fOrder=&fFamily=&fGenus=&fAdvancedSearch=closed&fSearchMode=simple&fIUCN=&fSpecies=trichys%20fasciculata&startIndex=1&orderBy=1&fWildCard=exact%20match&speciesID=17128 .

2004. "Long-tailed Porcupine, Landak Padi" (On-line). Accessed October 18, 2005 at http://www.mazpa.org.my/zooku/mazpa/show_animal.php?content=view&animal_id=1096528901 .

2004. Long-tailed porcupine. Pp. 363-364 in Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia , Vol. 16: Mammals V, Second Edition. New York: Gale.

2005. Porcupine. Encyclopædia Britannica , Online Edition. Accessed November 20, 2005 at https://webmail.kzoo.edu/k04ar03/Inbox/%5BFwd:%20Old%20World%20porcupines%20(family%20Hystricidae)%20(from%20porcupine)%20--%20%20Encyclop%C3%A6dia%20Britannica%5D.EML/1_multipart_xF8FF_2_0-search.eb.com.ariadne.kzoo.edu_xF8FF_eb_xF8FF_article-226110_x003F_query=Trichys%26ct=eb/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/0-search.eb.com.ariadne.kzoo.edu_eb_article-226110_query=Trichys%26ct=eb?attach=1 .

2002. Porcupines. Pp. 1298-1299 in Magill's Encyclopedia of Science: Animal Life , Vol. 3, First Edition. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, Inc..