Vote to Name Our Baby Porcupine!

What's your favorite name for our new baby porcupine: Nettles, Tumbleweed or Newberry? You can vote for the name by dropping a donation in ballot boxes set up here for each one. The name that receives the highest amount wins, and will be announced on July 9. All proceeds will support the nonprofit Museum’s porcupine family and our wildlife education program.

Visitors can meet the prickly baby here at 2 pm most Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 2 pm, and learn all about it from our wildlife experts. (If the baby is feeling shy, however, the appearance may be canceled. Thanks for understanding.)

The three names in the contest were selected by the Museum from scores submitted by preschoolers through eighth-graders in Central Oregon. The student whose submitted name wins will receive a special visit with the baby porcupine and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum’s wildlife areas.

The Museum asked local school children to name our newest animal, because the Museum is first and foremost an educational center, said Museum President Janeanne A. Upp.

The newborn weighed about a pound at birth in April. Baby porcupines are born with all of their teeth, their eyes open, walking, and with all 30,000 of their quills. The porcupine has not grown enough for Museum wildlife specialists to see whether it is male or female.

The new baby porcupine, like its parents, cannot survive in the wild. The mother, Honeysuckle, was born at an educational facility, and never learned survival skills such as how to find water, food, and shelter away from predators. In the wild, porcupines stay with their mothers for up to a year, and learn such skills. The father porcupine, Thistle, came to the Museum from a wildlife rehabilitation facility in 2004. His injuries prevent him from surviving in the wild.

This is the third consecutive year that Honeysuckle gave birth here. Last year, her baby was named Q’will in a public naming contest.