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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| When The Porcupines Come Back To Telluride |
| 2009-01-03 |
| Porcupines are becoming a prickly pest for Telluride-area residents. Residents said the rodents are chomping on the bark of spruce trees, yard trees, and have killed 50-foot-high native trees. The damage is estimated at more than $100,000 in the Mountain Village above Telluride. Porcupines also favor salty and sweaty items, so plywood treated with a sodium-based substance has become attractive to them. They've also munched on shoes, vehicle tires, and tool handles. Mountain Village resident Vicki Irwin said she's never seen the porcupines be so aggressive. Some possible reasons cited for the porcupine's behavior are a harsh winter last year that ramped-up their appetites and the rodents can roam freely because many of the town's 4,100 resident's live elsewhere most of the year. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #14 Not kosher, but that doesn't matter when survival is at stake. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-01-03 23:14 |
| #13 Porcupines are good survival food. Bonk them on the head with a stick. Burn off their quills over a fire. Then you can zip them open and gut them. Meat does not taste like chicken, however. More like spruce bark up here. We have some wandering about up in the valley. My dawgs learned a harrrrrd lesson this summer about attacking them. Heh. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-01-03 18:38 |
| #12 Rambler, works either way.... |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2009-01-03 17:03 |
| #11 VT, that should be updated for today to read "What's the difference between a Prius and a porcupine?" |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-01-03 16:43 |
| #10 #7 Vespasian - definitely Snark o' the Day™ material. :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-01-03 16:06 |
| #9 VT3906 - good one :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-01-03 16:03 |
| #8 Darth, Agreed! |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2009-01-03 15:47 |
| #7 What's the difference between a Porche and a Porcupine? The Porcupine has the pricks on the outside. |
| Posted by: Vespasian Tholutch3906 2009-01-03 15:37 |
| #6 Unleash the fisher cats! |
| Posted by: regular joe 2009-01-03 15:23 |
| #5 Porcupines have always been destructive. It is just the lame brain liberals are noticing it and are blaming it on the cause of the year. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-01-03 14:34 |
| #4 Well - Telluride aways has that magic mushroom festival where the Dead Heads go out and pick them and waltz about.... Maybe the porcupines are just mad about them taking all the recreation out of the wilderness? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-01-03 14:28 |
| #3 I've read accounts of porcupines getting into cars in the old days when steering wheels were made of wood and chewing up the entire wheel in a night or two. Salt from the drivers' hands attracted them. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2009-01-03 13:55 |
| #2 I'd figure this was another come on for Gerbil Warming if it wasn't for the "harsh winter" excuse. Something doesn't compute. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2009-01-03 13:52 |
| #1 worst of all is they're attracted to outhouses - very disconcerting when you stumble out there at 2:00am. |
| Posted by: Thetch B. Hayes6224 2009-01-03 13:43 |