Hystrix brachyura, Linnaeus, 1758
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.6612213 |
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DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6612198 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03A91B1C-C155-4A64-CC72-FEF59F20629E |
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treatment provided by |
Carolina |
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scientific name |
Hystrix brachyura |
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Malayan Porcupine
French: Porc-épic de Malaisie / German: Malaiisches Stachelschwein / Spanish: Puercoespin de Malasia
Other common names: Himalayan Crestless Porcupine, Hodgson's Porcupine
Taxonomy. Hystrix brachyura Linnaeus, 1758 View in CoL ,
“Habitat in Asia.” Identified by A. Grote in J. E. Gray in 1866 as “Malacca,” Malaya.
Hystrix brachyura is in subgenus Acanthion. Many different subspecies have been described (some based on single specimens) including four recent subspecies in China, butD. J. van Weers in 1979 concluded after careful measurements of many specimens that although some clearly different populations can be recognized,full subspecific designation was unwarranted due to a high degree of intergradation. Further examination of a larger number of specimens, especially a larger number from China, will help resolve subspecific taxonomy. Northern limit of H. brachyura in China is in southern Gansu and southern Shaanxi from where Pleistocene fossils have also been recorded as H. subcristata . Three subspecies recognized.
Subspecies and Distribution.
H.b.brachyuraLinnaeus,1758 — MalayPeninsula,PenangI(offWcoastofPeninsularMalaysia),Sumatra,andBorneo.
H.b.hodgsoniGray,1847 — SofHimalayasinENepal,NIndia(Sikkim).
H. b. subcristata Swinhoe, 1870 — S Bhutan, NE India, C & S China (including Hainan I), Bangladesh, Burma (= Myanmar), and mainland South-east Asia. View Figure
Descriptive notes. Head—body 455-930 mm,tail 60-170 mm, ear 25-38 mm, hindfoot 75-95 mm; weight 8-27 kg. The Malayan Porcupine is large, stocky, and blackish brown, with short tail. In some individuals, spines along back of neck form rudimentary dorsal crest. Quills of back, shoulders, and sides are brown without white tips. Dorsal quills are square anteriorly and become round posteriorly. Long defensive quills on lower back are white, with single brownish black band in middle of each quill and white tips ¢.200 mm in length. Diameters of thickest quills on back are 5-7 mm. Ears and eyes are relatively small. Nasals are long (41-60% of occipito-nasal length) and broad (37-62% of zygomatic breadth). Skull has inflated pneumatic cavities. Quills on hindquarters are white, with fairly narrow sub-terminal black bands, and quills under tail are entirely white. Length of short tail is less than 20% of head-body length. Tail carries hollow, goblet-shaped rattlequills, extending 200-300 mm in length that rattle when shaken. Lengths of hollow parts of rattle-quills are 15-34 mm. Channels in network of medulla in quills might serve to transport pheromones. There are three pairs of lateral mammae. Diploid number is 2n = 60. The Malayan Porcupine can be differentiated from the Indian Crested Porcupine ( H. indica ), with which it overlaps in India, by having rudimentary crest, if any, and having quills with only single brown bands. The Asiatic Brush-tailed Porcupine ( Atherurus macrourus ) is smaller than the Malayan Porcupine, with shorter brown quills, a longer scaly tail with a brush on the tip, and beaded tail quills.
Habitat. Forests and open fields where large burrows are dug into banks and under rocks. Malayan Porcupines are often seen crossing open areas at night. In India, they prefer forests and grasslands of eastern Himalaya, especially near cultivated land.
Food and Feeding. The Malayan Porcupine is a generalist herbivore. It eats roots, tubers, bark, grains, vegetation, and fallen fruit including African oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis, Arecaceae ). It craves calcium and seeks out bones and antlers to gnaw.
Breeding. Gestation of the Malayan Porcupine is c.110 days. Two (sometimes three) precocial young are born, and two litters can be produced per year.
Activity patterns. The Malayan Porcupine is nocturnal and primarily terrestrial. In a camera trap survey of Indonesian rainforest mammals, 100% of photographs of Malayan Porcupines were at night. It digs extensive burrows beneath the forest floor.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. The Malayan Porcupine lives alone or in groups of 2—4 individuals. Family groups can occupied burrows together and emerge at night to forage together along well-defined runways. Malayan Porcupines can reach very high densities, resulting in problems with vegetable farms and tree plantation when it feeds in agricultural areas. Frequent visual sightings and detections in camera-trap surveys suggest an increase in numbers around Hong Kong in the last 20 years, although the Malayan Porcupine was described as rare in that area in pre-1990 publications. When alarmed, an individual rattlesits tail quills, snorts, and stomps its feet. If the threat does not subside, it might attack by running backward, quills erect, into the enemy.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List. Overhunting is the greatest threat to the Malayan Porcupine. It is hunted for meat and also farmed in Vietnam where populations have declined 20% since the 1990s. The Malayan Porcupine is one of three species of native rodents that remains in Hong Kong. Its presence and increase there is somewhat surprising given that, until recently, it was persecuted as an agricultural pest and hunted for food. Habitat loss and poaching are the main threats to populations of Malayan Porcupines in India.
Bibliography. Agrawal (2000), Brooks et al. (2010), Chung & Corlett (2006), Corbet & Hill (1992), Francis (2008), Gray (1866), Lunde, Aplin & Molur (2008), Medway & Harrisson (1963), Menon (2009), Nowak (1999a), Raha et al. (2015), van Schaik & Griffiths (1996), Smith & Yan Xie (2008), Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2012), Storch (1990), Tempa et al. (2013), van Weers (1979).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.
