N.S. animal rescue caring for wounded porcupine that was shot with arrow

A porcupine is recovering at Hope For Wildlife, after being shot with a dart.

An animal rescue and rehabilitation service in Nova Scotia is caring for a porcupine that was found wounded after being shot by an arrow.

Hope for Wildlife said in a post, they surgically removed a “dart/bolt” from the porcupine. The object was close to the spine and the animal rescue was concerned about potential nerve damage to the area.

“This particular arrow, it wasn’t a nice smooth one, it did have a bit of an edge to it,” said Dr. Mikaela Jahncke, a veterinarian with Hope for Wildlife.

The porcupine was found lethargic in the Lucasville area. When she was brought into the centre, the team immediately got to work.

“She was under anesthesia, so we sedated her, got her on pain meds, had her under gas anesthesia, and then took x-rays, determined the location of the arrow, and then with some fine tuning was able to pull it out,” said Jahncke.

The porcupine is recovering in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Hope for Wildlife in Seaforth and beginning to move around. It’s believed this porcupine is quite young, and was likely only born in the spring.

“Very lucky to have survived it. Very lucky,” said Hope Swinimer, the founder of Hope for Wildlife.

If all goes as planned, the porcupine will be released back into the wild once she has fully recovered.

“She’s still not moving her tail a whole lot, which is our main concern because that is a defense mechanism for porcupines,” said Jahncke.

“They need to be able to whip that tail around to protect themselves. So, we’re in the early stages now, though, so we’ll give her some more time, and on meds, and hopefully she’ll regain that function back.”

Animals on the move

This isn’t the first time the centre has dealt with an incident like this.

“Obviously, we get animals in for all kinds of reasons, but we are seeing four or five a year that have been shot with arrows, and it may not necessarily be a porcupine, but it does seem to often happen to the porcupines,” said Swinimer.

Last year, about 120 porcupines ended up at Hope for Wildlife. Swinimer said they typically get brought in after being hit by cars or if they are dealing with mange.

Over the next several weeks, she said people may see more porcupines, and other wildlife, out and about.

“We really have been trying to caution everybody and encourage everybody to tolerate nature in a really big way, mainly because of the forest fires and there’s so many animals that have been displaced, that we’re bound to see more,” said Swinimer.

“In general, this is the time of year that they’re very hungry and they want to get lots of meat on their bones before the cold winter.”

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