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.

Sarah Beth Hensley

Sarah Beth Hensley is the Digital News Director at WTOP. She has worked several different roles since she began with WTOP in 2013 and has contributed to award-winning stories and coverage on the website.

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