Range Description

The crested porcupine is found in Italy, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. In the Mediterranean it is known from mainland Italy and the island of Sicily, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia; there are also records from Libya, and along the Egyptian coast (Osborn and Helmy 1980). It has been recorded from sea level to 2,550 m in Moroccan Anti Atlas (Cuzin 2003). It is sometimes asserted that the porcupine was introduced to Italy by the Romans, but fossil and subfossil remains suggest it was possibly present in Europe in the Upper Pleistocene (Amori and Angelici 1999).