National Zoo announces porcupine birth

WASHINGTON – The National Zoo may be shy a panda after the departure of Bao Bao earlier this week, but now it’s up one porcupine.

The zoo announced Friday the birth of a prehensile-tailed porcupine. The baby porcupine was born some time overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, the zoo said.

The porcupette – as infant porcupines are adorably called – is the third offspring born to the zoo’s adult prehensile-tailed porcupines, Bess and Clark.

Keepers hope to be able to determine the sex of the porcupette over the next week or so, the zoo said in a news release.

The porcupines live in the Small Mammal House exhibit at the zoo.