Porcupine rescue at Birds Hill Park

I was skiing with my two cousins at Birds Hill Park in December when we found a porcupine on its back, frozen to one of the ski tracks on the Esker trail near the bush cutoffs to the Lime Kiln trail. We weren’t sure if it fell out of a tree or was possibly hit by the ski tracker. It was barely alive. We dug it out of the track, wrapped it my jacket, and skied while carrying it up to the the warming hut on the tower hill. We built a fire to warm it up and thaw it out, and fed it a few apples for nourishment and hydration. We tried releasing it after, but it couldn’t even walk, so we skied it to the Chickadee parking lot, and my cousins transported it via their van to Wildlifehaven Rescue Shelter. I really didn’t give it much odds of surviving, but surprise surprise, and the rest is history.

by Daryl Hrechkosy