Why is the Porcupine River in the Yukon territory named like that?
porcupine anteater small mammal whose body is covered in spines and feeds on ants The Porcupine River is a river in Alaska and in the Yukon. Having its source in the Ogilvie Mountains north of Dawson City, Yukon, it flows north, veers to the southwest, goes through the community of Old Crow, Yukon, flowing into the Yukon River at Fort Yukon, Alaska. The Porcupine caribou herd, considered by many to be threatened by oil-drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska, gets its name from the river. The oldest (but disputed) possible evidence of human habitation in North America were found in a cave along one of its tributaries, the Bluefish River. A large number of apparently human modified animal bones have been discovered in the Bluefish Caves. They have been dated to 25,000 to 40,000 years old by carbon dating — several thousand years earlier than generally accepted human habitation of North America.
