Prehensile-tailed porcupine born at Lincoln Children’s Zoo; a first in zoo’s history

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The Lincoln Children’s Zoo is celebrating the birth of a prehensile-tailed porcupine.

The baby porcupine, referred to as a porcupette, was born on Aug. 1 to mom, Nora, and dad, Renzo. This is the first time a porcupine has ever been born at Lincoln’s zoo.

Zoo staff said the baby and its mom are healthy and thriving. The porcupette weighed 428 grams at two days old and has increased its weight to 1,080 grams as of Aug. 26. A quill DNA test must be done to determine if the porcupette is a male or female.

At less than one month old, the porcupette has many visible quills and the team expects it to lose the remaining rust-colored hair within the next couple of weeks.

This baby porcupine, along with the zoo’s two other prehensile-tailed porcupines, are ambassador anim