Neon Green Monkeys Pass on Genes to Babies

The North American porcupine babies Hanna brought are just four weeks old, so their quills are still soft. They live throughout the North American desert regions and in the West all the way to Canada.

North American porcupines are the second largest of all rodents. The porcupine has a life span of about 10 years in captivity and between five and six in the wild. They grow to 25-40 inches long, have a thick muscular tail that can be as long as 8 inches and weight anywhere from 10 to 40 pounds.

They are usually solitary, nocturnal animals that spend much of their time up in trees

A porcupine has up to 30,000 quills interspersed among the dark, coarse guard hairs on its back and tail. The black-tipped, yellowish quills are stiff, barbed spines about 3 inches long that can be deadly once embedded in another animal's flesh.

But porcupines don't use the quills for catching prey -- they are strict vegetarians. The quills are their way of protecting themselves.

When a porcupine feels romantic, the male will look for a mate with a high falsetto squeak and the female will announce her availability with a squall. When the two come together, they confirm their interest by rubbing noses.