BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 11, 2022
Five porcupines were rushed to Acadia Wildlife in Bar Harbor in one week this fall with labored breathing and runny noses. Two died as they came in, and one soon after. Concerned with what she saw, the wildlife center’s executive director, Ann Rivers, sent samples to experts at Cornell University in New York and the University of New Hampshire to try and figure out what was ailing — and killing — the porcupines. What they saw was a disease that could wreak havoc on Maine’s porcupine population. The porcupines were diagnosed with SkAdV-1. The virus was first seen in 2014 and since then it has been spotted in hedgehogs, foxes, raccoons and, of course, porcupines. Researchers are now teaming up with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, wildlife rehabilitators and trappers to further study the virus and which animals are most at risk.