Orange-spined Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
Coendou spinosus
- Class
- Mammal
- Rarity
- Common
- Observations
- 686
- Most observed in
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- Conservation
- Least Concern
Description
The Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine (Coendou spinosus) is a porcupine species from the family Erethizontidae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. They have a short tail and gray brown quills and feed on fruits, ant pupae, vegetables and roots. This species was formerly sometimes assigned to Sphiggurus, a genus no longer recognised since genetic studies showed it to be polyphyletic. The population formerly recognised as the orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupine (Sphiggurus villosus) has been reclassified to this species. Its closest relatives are the bicolored-spined porcupine (Coendou bicolor) and the black dwarf porcupine (Coendou nycthemera).
Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine”.