Canada Porcupine

John James Audubon
Plate XXXVI - Canada Porcupine
From: Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America
New York: 1845-1848
Hand-colored lithograph
Sheet size: 21” x 27 ¼”, Framed size: 30” x 36”
$6,500

Audubon writes about the live specimen he kept in Charleston with affinity, explaining how ravenous it was and how indiscriminate it was with the foods it consumed. Unfortunately, the poor porcupine was not cut out for the hot and humid weather of the south and apparently "suffered so much that we wished it back again in it's
Canadian wilds."