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Cape Porcupines Showed Higher Dry-Season Occupancy Across KwaZulu-Natal Mistbelt Forests

Cape porcupine
Research · Ecology

Camera-trap surveys across 14 indigenous Southern Mistbelt Forest patches in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa found that Cape porcupines (Hystrix africaeaustralis) had substantially higher modelled occupancy during the dry season than during the wet season. Here, occupancy means the estimated probability that a camera-trap site was used by the species during the sampling period; it is not a measure of population density.

Researchers surveyed forest patches between Karkloof and Bulwer in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, comparing state-owned and privately owned forests. Camera traps sampled the forests during both wet and dry seasons. Vegetation structure and other microhabitat features were measured around each camera so the researchers could examine which conditions were associated with porcupine occurrence and detection.

Dry-season occupancy was substantially higher

The seasonal difference was stronger than the researchers had predicted. Across all forest patches, Cape porcupine occupancy was estimated at about 0.29 in the wet season and 0.50 in the dry season. During the dry season, estimates were also very similar between ownership types: about 0.46 in state-owned forests and 0.48 in privately owned forests.

Ownership patterns differed by season. In the wet season, porcupine occupancy was higher in state-owned than in privately owned forests despite greater resource extraction and other human pressures. This contrasted with bushbuck, the study’s other focal mammal, whose occupancy was lower in the more heavily pressured state-owned forests.

Different forest features mattered between seasons

Different parts of forest structure were associated with porcupine occupancy in the two seasons. During the wet season, plant-species richness was positively associated with occupancy while the density of trees 11–15 m tall was negatively associated with it. During the dry season, occupancy was positively associated with canopy closure and the density of trees 2–5 m tall. The shift in which forest features mattered between seasons was consistent with the species using a broad range of microhabitats.

The authors interpret the broad set of habitat associations as consistent with the Cape porcupine’s ecological generalism. They suggest that seasonal changes in diet may contribute to the higher dry-season use of these forests. They also raise the possibility that indigenous forest patches can act as fire refuges during the dry season.

Sources and image credit

  1. Cordier, C. P., Bitani, N., Ehlers Smith, D. A., Ehlers Smith, Y. C., & Downs, C. T. (2026). Microhabitat and anthropogenic impacts on bushbuck and Cape porcupine in Southern Mistbelt Forests, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Forest Ecology and Management, 603, 123427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123427

Image: Hans Hillewaert — Cape porcupine photographed at Chester Zoo, United Kingdom, 26 July 2011; representative species image. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

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