Mammals: Porcupine

More and more common it seems in Hong Kong, even on the Island, along Blacks Link, Bowen Road and the Peak, but also in the New Territories is the East Asian or Malayan Porcupine.

Shy animals, mostly seen in mating pairs, you can often hear their spines rustling, even if you cannot see them.

They normally feed on roots, tubers, bark, and fallen fruits. They also eat carrion, insects, and large tropical seeds. You can sometimes find scat (pooh), or prints, or teeth marks where they have chewed the base of trees. These animals are often attacked by hungry feral dogs. these are often pet dogs which have been dumped, or lets loose after guarding building sites. As Gary Ades of Kadoorie Farm Rescue Centre said in the SCMP last year........“A lot of animals that are being brought to us – barking deer, mongoose, leopard cats – have been attacked by feral dogs ... from all over Hong Kong but in particular the New Territories,” Ades says.“They’re quite indiscriminate and, unlike true predators, these dogs will kill an animal like a barking deer, take a few chunks out of it and just leave the rest. It’s like they smell an animal and they have a frenzy and kill it. That’s a big problem in Hong Kong and the government recognises that.”