Is there still wildlife in the bush around Sudbury? Of course there is. You won’t see any of the woodland caribou that roamed this area just more than 100 years ago, but you can easily see lots of animals that have adapted quite well to having human neighbours.
Take the porcupine for instance. There are a couple of them living in our neighbourhood. And for the most part, they are good neighbours. They don’t make a lot of noise, they don’t cut down trees in our yard, and they don’t usually leave their quills lying around either, except for the few they left on the floor of the boathouse after chewing on some old plywood there.
Generally, porcupines pretty much lead a quiet, reclusive life. I know this because we have a porcupine who lives just a hundred metres from our back door. She calls the pile of boulders at the edge of the swamp her home.
I usually only visit our prickly neighbour in winter, when I can follow her trail through the snow to find which tree she is eating that day. But a few days ago, I was wandering around her backyard, and we happened to meet.
Ms. Porque’s backyard is a high cliff above the boulders of her home. I like to walk up there sometimes to take in the view of the lake and the autumn leaves.
I’d been sitting there on the rock at the top of the cliff for a while, and was just getting ready to head homeward, when I heard a little rustle in the bush. I watched and waited and listened.
Soon I saw my quilly friend making her way along the same path she uses in winter. She seemed to be looking for something. She sniffed a bit here and there, stepped up onto a log, then back down, then back on the log and over the other side.
She looked up several of the trees where I know she had fed last winter, then ambled a little further down the path. She didn’t appear to be in any hurry, but seemed to be searching thoroughly for something she had lost. I followed her a little while, until she found what she was looking for.
My little friend made a loud noise, something like a bark, then decisively began to climb a small jack pine. When she had gone up a few feet, I decided to announce my presence. I thought I’d see if she remembered me from last winter.
I guess she didn’t really want to see me though, because when she finally noticed that I was there, she thrashed her tail angrily and made rude noises. It was then that I noticed she was not alone.
Now I know from my reading that porcupines are solitary creatures. They only get together once a year to mate. I thought about that for about five seconds, and with a little embarrassment, I moved slowly away.
How do porcupines make love? Very carefully I’ve heard. I didn’t stick around to watch.
Viki Mather has been writing for Northern Life since the spring of 1984. During 2011, she takes us back to some of those older writings as she prepares to publish a book of “In the Bush.” This one was originally published in the autumn of 1988.
- Posted by Vivian Scinto
