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This is perhaps the most moving nature article I’ve ever read.

Had one on our deck right after Thanksgiving, came right to the sliding door. Was a healthy looking one, not skinny in the least. I have a habit of throwing food out on the lawn, so it doesn’t smell in the house.  I wouldn’t mind keeping it around for summer months since we live in the woods.  Any suggestions as to what to leave out for winter? Blanket, old towel? Does it need to be in a crate?

We had one cousin, whom had never smelled a skunk…called the fire department, they came, and died laughing when they found out what it was…we have never let her forget it….when we smell skunk, we usually say…quick call the fire department…lol

Beautifully articulated Dave…I think I’ll be printing this up and tucking it behind an ash bark charcoal rubbing in my three-year son’s bedroom to help me tell the tale when he’s old enough to understand.

Hi Tiffany,
Found a toad in the yard this morning,  Your info is very helpful.
Also, When I was a kid our first camping trips were to Groton State Forest.  Great memories there.

I only have about three cedar trees on my property and want to use them for other projects.  What I have is hundreds of sweet gum trees that grow very fast and are impossible to kill.  Will sweet gum work?  They grow so fast they are truly renewable. I have cut them down in the spring and by fall they are already 15’ tall and 3” in diameter.  I could spray the ends with a breathable water proofing and use a long roof overhand to keep them dry.  I don’t really know but I have been told sweet gum rots easily.  I also have lots of oaks on my property but don’e really want to cut them down.

Hi Ryan,

My advice would be to not do anything. Feel good that you have frozen venison in the freezer. And if you want to experiment with aging, do it next year with next year’s deer.

I have a lot of raccoons in my neighborhood. My next door neighbor put in a fish pond with some gold fish. Usually the fish escaped by swimming into the deep water, however, one day the raccoons figured out a solution.
They diverted the waterfall so it pumped all of the water out of the fish pond and got all of the fish. My neighbor fixed the pond and refilled it, but the next night they did the same thing. He made a more permanent fix so they could no longer do that.
To me, that shows planning and the understanding of cause and effect.

I feed skunks all year and there the most cutest creatures, first of all there almost blind, I didn’t notice anyone saying that in these comments if you all didn’t know, there so harmless, and in the 4 years I have been feeding them I only smelled them once because a fox was bothering one of them, I feed many animals and they all basically get along, coons, opossums, fox, feral cats, I saw a fox nose to nose with a feral cat once, it looked like there were kissing lol

Dropped my in full rut buck skinned and quartered deer off Sunday night, harvested Sunday morning. I got a call today that my order was ready. I have never gotten it back in 2 days, usually a week. When I asked the processor, so we didn’t age it all, they said if it’s a whole deer we do, if it comes in a cooler we don’t. So my meat is now Frozen and packaged in butcher paper and wrapped in cling wrap. Should I unpackage it all way then put it in my spare fridge a week, then vacuum seal it all. Take just the cling wrap off and vacuum seal it, with the butcher paper. Is your recommendation to vacuum seal to suck as much of the blood out, or to keep sterile.

I have been feeding a mamma raccoon and 3 kits.  She lost one.  My neighbor has kids and told me to stop or they will call an exterminator.  It is November and I still want to feed them but my hands seem to be tied.  Any suggestions.

The approach of “what will my woods look like” (and from forester, landowner, logger) is spot on and is something that I can help with my forestry clients. I couldn’t reach Amy’s PDF, : (  Thank you for the good work though. S

Hopeful that at least some species are co-existing in a semblance of peace.
We had a mother porcupine and her young `un feasting under our apple trees from late summer through harvest and they were nonplussed whenever I had to pass nearby during chores.
But no evidence of co-housing in our woodland.

How has nobody commented on this yet?  Let’s face it, Northern Woodlands (which I read avidly) is not normally known for stellar creative writing or humor.  But this piece was different. I chuckled all the way through it and re-read it several times.  Excellent work Dave Mance III and I hope the magazine will continue to feature such work when the opportunity presents itself.

The ice has just started to form on our lake. Over the last week I have watched a muskrat use a hole about a foot off my shore to dive in and out with clumps of grass it is pulling out of my lawn. The muskrat is cute and grass can be replanted in the Spring so he can have at it. However, I am concerned about my shoreline. I put a lot of work and money into fabric and rocks. Will the muskrat try to burrow into my bank if I let him continue to progress with his winter hut?

Interesting article!  Thank you.

I don’t have any first hand stories, but know my cat is not concerned with porcupines.  We don’t have raccoons.  (He is curious about deer, loves small rodents, ignores skunks, hates turkeys, and is deathly afraid of coyotes.  I haven’t experienced his reaction to the weasel family, though they are here and guess he is pretty afraid of them.)

Back to the article, I wonder if another animal isn’t a threat (food source or safety wise), it’s mostly a “live and let live” world out there.  They are not going to burn extra calories avoiding each other. 

The single entrance to multiple dens theory makes sense.  As well as more warmth and/or safety in numbers possibilities. 

One idea I like is humans are not the only species to enjoy interacting with other species.  There are enough YouTube videos to prove that - though it’s often a baby of one of the species.  But how many different types of animals does that inter-species interest include?  Porcupines and raccoons?

One thing I find interesting is I’ve always considered raccoons to live more around people and porcupines deeper in the woods. 

We really know so little about nature.  Not only what we know we don’t know.  But ideas we don’t even know enough to consider.

I have seen similar behavior on my game camera. I’ve posted a video here from YouTube showing interactions with raccoons. All the visits that the raccoons make are very short and I’ve never seen them stay more than a few minutes. The porcupine seems distressed when it returns and finds that the raccoons have been there. I’ve been in contact with Dr Roze in regards to scenting behavior at this particular densite. The porcupine would scent mark regularly when leaving the den and occasionally when returning.

I will be placing a couple of cameras out this winter on a different den to see how often they mark along the trails to their feeding sites. I will share this to the Trail camera photo video Facebook page to see if others have some more insight into this topic.

So interesting, Elise! If you haven’t already, it might be a good idea to set the camera to record video so you can see what they are doing. Are both repeatedly going in and out of the entry hole? At this time of year, some animals are just searching for good winter shelters, so the fact that they were both seen near the entry hole doesn’t necessarily mean they both live there. They may be competing for the same spot, not sharing it. Also, individuals don’t necessarily use the same den every day. Could be a porcupine tonight and a raccoon tomorrow. And, as you suggest, the entry hole may lead to different chambers. Finally, animals are curious about the dens of other animals, both those of the same and those of other species. They stop to sniff and sometimes urinate or defecate near the entrance. With still photos you really can’t tell what is going on there. I haven’t seen porcupines and raccoons sharing entry holes, but in the western US I have seen multiple species visiting old badger dens: some apparently to use it, and others just to take a whiff probably to see who lives there. Usually use is sequential, not simultaneous. The one pair of species I have seen repeatedly using the same den entries during the same time period are kangaroo rats and antelope squirrels. Presumably they are using different tunnels that branch off of the entry tunnel. Nonetheless it’s very interesting because they compete for some of the same foods but the rat is nocturnal and the squirrel is diurnal, so it is as if there’s a day shift and a night shift for the same niche. Here is a blog post with a video montage of animals visiting 4 different badger dens. I have a lot more material of animals using the same burrows that I haven’t gotten around to posting yet. https://winterberrywildlife.ouroneacrefarm.com/2019/07/28/life-at-four-badger-burrows/

Hi Elise,

I have spent quite a bit of time with porcupines in their winter lodgings and can share a couple of observations. In talus areas where there appear to be many potential dens, porcupines use those sites that have been used historically by other porcupines. These are the ones that remain dry and cozy. Maybe raccoons have learned that porcupines know the good spots, and vice versa.

Like Uldis, I have found porcupines denning solo most often, but have also observed porcupines developing friendships and choosing to den together when other dens are available nearby, Burdock and Dangerous Dan most notably. Burdock was a juvenile male and Dangerous Dan was an unrelated adult female. They still complained about who got which corner (first come, first served), but chose to share the same cave and followed each other when out and about.

I didn’t check to see if the guy who asked about skunk legs growing back posted on April 1, but I hope so. Lizard legs do NOT grow back and neither do the limbs of any vertebrate. Amazing how often vets get asked this question. Should’ve paid attention in biology class, pal.