Porcupine Encounter

Most of the hunters I speak with think, like myself, that a porcupine is not a real savvy animal. They are big and slow, have an excellent defense system, but they look "stupid".

I spent a lot of time in the wilderness over the last 30 year, enough to observe wildlife at it's best. On one occasion, I had been sitting in a ground stand waiting for that all elusive "massive dominant 12 point whitetail buck", then I woke up! To my amazement, there was a porcupine in very close proximity. I watched as it broke a piece of ice, took it in it's front paws and chewed around the edge of it, as it flipped it around. When it was done eating, it gently returned the rest of the ice, and slowly walked away.

On another excursion, on a heavy frosty morning, I headed out to an area where I had noticed active whitetail buck scrapes. Every experienced hunter knows how much noise is created when our big over sized hunting boots break the frozen leaves and twigs. When I got close to the area, I could hear other noises as I stepped forward, very slowly, one step at a time. I would only hear the noise as my hunting boot crushed the ground. I would pause, no noise, step, more noise. I had partially located the direction the sound was coming from, and thought that the big buck was sneaking around me. Then, I faked a step, putting my foot down and stopping short of the frost. I heard it plain as day, on my left, but up a big spruce tree. "What is this?" A big porcupine was watching me over his right shoulder, and when I stepped and made noise, he would climb. When I stopped it would wait. I watched and repeated three steps as it continued to make me look like an @#$%@!, you get it!

Wild animals have adapted to our intrusions in their homes. Veteran hunters must teach other generations to respect these wild animals.

Life is an adventure, experience it!

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