Love at first sight for our new porcupine pair

Keepers are hoping for the pitter patter of porcupettes with the introduction of the first male Prehensile Tailed Porcupine at the Park.

Called Gus, short for Asparagus, he has been introduced to Pumpkin and as the videos and pictures show it was love at first sight.

We welcomed a baby North American tree porcupine in spring 2025 who was born to Fennel and Mango. Also at the park is Cape Porcupine, Pepper

Jon Ovens, Lead Keeper, said: “We have three species of porcupine and Gus is the first male we have had for the Prehensile Tailed Porcupine, also known as the Brazilian porcupine.

“Gus is three and if he and Pumpkin do welcome a porcupette, it will be born reddish-orange, before changing colour as they get older.

“It was lovely to see them getting on from the first moment of meeting so we will be keeping an eye on them but the average pregnancy is around 200 days so we have sometime to wait.”

Prehensile-tailed Porcupines are classified as of Least Concern which means stable populations and no major immediate threats.