Photo of the Month - March 2011

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Photo of the Month - March 2011

Photo of the Month

Your photo could be featured as Nature Canada's Photo of the Month.

1. Tell us your name, where you took the photo, and a brief description or story explaining the photo.

2. Image should be a .jpg file, smaller than 1MB.

3.When you submit a photo, you agree to allow Nature Canada to use your photo on our Web site, enewsletter, ecards and other educational materials. Every effort will be made to credit you as the photographer.

Hello Nature Canada,

I found this little one munching on the trees and fell in love. It made the long days of winter go by with a smile as it gave me a reason to go outside everyday. I took this photo just 6 km north of Wishart, Saskatchewan.

Thank you,

Peggy Sandirson

Thanks for sharing this beautiful photo with us, Peggy!

The porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum, is a large member of the rodent family that lives across most of Canada and western parts of the United States, and has been spotted as far south as Texas.

Most porcupines make their home in coniferous forests, feeding on the foliage and inner bark of trees during the winter and adding deciduous leaves, forbs and herbs to their diet in the spring and summer.

Quills cover almost all of a porcupine’s body, leaving only its face, belly, inner limbs and underside of the tail quill-free. To defend itself against would-be predators, the porcupine will either passively collide with a threat, or actively slap its tail to drive quills into a predator’s flesh.

The porcupine is the only mammal in North America with body hairs modified as quills.

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