Porcupines

I often wonder how they survive a Minnesota winter! With temperatures dipping to -30 how do they survive up in a tree. Brrrrrr! I pondered that question with my neighbor just yesterday afternoon. I have seen them in the trees in the winter, but never on the ground. How do they get from tree to tree and how difficult is the journey? Yesterday we had a dusting of snow, TF and I took our evening walk through the woods last night at dusk/dark. It's always fun to be out in the woods after a light snow - so many tracks!! There is so much life going on out there that we don't see. Well, low and behold there was a BIG porcupine in one of the trees. TF loves porcupines, or she gets excited at seeing them. We have had many nights of quill pulling. You'd think she would fear them. Or maybe she wants to get them, who knows? Anyway, it was fun to see the porcupine's path through the woods from one tree to the other. It definitely had to slog through the snow, but only sunk down about five or six inches, hard work, when you're not that tall! I wonder how much they weigh - the quills can't weigh much but they would have to have some fat layer to withstand our winters.