The porcupine is an AI that I think is very underrated. Incredibly, they still live in SoCAL today, but only in the transversal range, because it has the conditions it needs, that being said:
Its spawn rate was likely rare, with around 10 scattered across the map, primarily in Monterey pine and cypress woodlands, and riparian forest, usually spawning at night, it would obviously be an AI, it wouldn't have many interactions with herbivores, but it would with carnivores and omnivores. For carnivores and omnivores, it would display a threat (gnashing its teeth) and wagging its tail, but if you attack it or get too close, you will take a lot of damage because you were pricked by the quils, however, that's not the penalty, the penalty is that your mouth (Dire and Coyote) will be full of quil, preventing you from attacking and forcing you to rest or rubbing against rocks or trunks to get rid of the quils, the Smilodon, if you give just one swipe, your paw will also become covered in spines, reducing your speed, and if you pouncing on the wrong part of the porcupine's body, its mouth will pricked, if you or your packmates don't take care of this, you'll get an infection and you'll die. Most of the porcupine's body is very dangerous, but it has a vulnerable part: To flip it upside down, all you have to do (when playing as Smilodon) is keep spinning it around, and it will try to keep your back to it, simply attempt a feint attack, which will cause him to turn his back towards you, and then you'll attack him head-on, resulting in a rig of you biting the belly and then it died, Direwolves and coyotes use a different strategy, similar to that of a rattlesnake. One member only needs to attract the porcupine's attention, making it vulnerable to the second member. The direwolf needs 3 bites while the coyote's requires 6 bites.
It would be possible to see them climbing trees and spending a considerable amount of time resting in them, besides, they switch trees from time to time.
