AnAge entry for Erethizon dorsatus

Classification (HAGRID: 02970)

Taxonomy: Kingdom: Animalia
    Phylum: Chordata
        Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
            Order: Rodentia
                Family: Erethizontidae
                    Genus: Erethizon
Species: Erethizon dorsatus
Common name: North American porcupine
Synonyms: Erethizon dorsatum

Maximum longevity: 23.4 years (captivity)
Source: ref. 671
Sample size: Medium
Data quality: Acceptable
Observations: These animals appear to have a remarkably long life span in the wild, living up to 18 years [0434]. One captive specimen was about 23.4 years when it died [0671]. Another wild female specimen was estimated to be between 25 to 30 years old [1406], but this remains to be further verified.

[1406] Roze (2012), Porcupines: The Animal Answer Guide
[0777] Harper et al. (2007), Skin-derived fibroblasts from long-lived species are resistant to some, but not all, lethal stresses and to the mitochondrial inhibitor rotenone (PubMed)
[0481] Austad (2005), Diverse aging rates in metazoans: targets for functional genomics (PubMed)
[0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
[0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
[0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed)
[0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
[0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
[0441] William Burt et al. (1998), A Field Guide to Mammals
[0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
[0680] Wootton (1987), The effects of body mass, phylogeny, habitat, and trophic level on mammalian age at first reproduction
[0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves