Baby Porcupine Named by Local Student

Tumbleweed is the winning name for the baby porcupine at the High Desert Museum, and the culmination of a contest involving hundreds of Central Oregon students and visitors. Maycie Mitsch, 10, of Bend, submitted the winning name.

The Museum had chosen Tumbleweed, along with Nettles and Newberry, from the suggestions submitted by students. Museum visitors voted for the winner with contributions dropped in ballot boxes for each name. All proceeds support the Museum’s porcupine family and the wildlife education programs.

Visitors can meet the 10-week-old Tumbleweed at most 3 pm Desert Dwellers programs, which happen daily and include a badger and other live animals at the Museum.

Mitsch won a special visit with the baby porcupine and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum’s wildlife areas.

“I thought Tumbleweed was a good name for a porcupine because it’s something we have in the High Desert, and it’s sort of prickly like a porcupine,” said Mitsch, who is going into the fifth grade at Highland Elementary School, and whose family has had a Museum membership for several years.

Mitsch’s mother, Melissa Mitsch, said the family was vacationing, visiting six national parks throughout the West, when Maycie learned she was a contest finalist. “It was Maycie’s most exciting memory from that trip,” she said. “She was ecstatic.”

Museum President Janeanne A. Upp said, “It was wonderful to have the whole community join in naming our newest animal, and to see local school children’s excitement surrounding the contest. It exemplifies how the Museum achieves its goal of inspiring all ages to become engaged in learning about the wildlife and nature of our region.”

The 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. 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 contest open to the public.

This summer, contributions that were dropped in donation boxes during the contest and those made through Aug. 15 at the Museum will be even more valuable. Sagebrush, a new collaborative fundraising project in Central Oregon, will make a percentage match to those donations. All of these contributions support the Museum’s educational programs.

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Photo by Abbott Schindler