The Indian crested porcupine is a hystricomorph rodent species native to southern Asia and the Middle East. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It belongs to the Old World porcupine family, Hystricidae.
Indian crested porcupine
Indian crested porcupine on a rocky hillside
A captive Indian crested porcupine
Indian crested porcupine in a trap
The Old World porcupines, or Hystricidae, are large terrestrial rodents, distinguished by the spiny covering from which they take their name. They range over the south of Europe and the Levant, most of Africa, India, and Southeast Asia as far east as Flores. Although both the Old World and New World porcupine families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi of the vast order Rodentia, they are quite different and are not particularly closely related.
Old World porcupine
Relief of a porcupine in an Egyptian desert, detail of a wall fragment from the grave of Pehenuikai at Saqqara, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, c. 2500 BCE. Neues Museum, Berlin
African brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus) sold for meat in Cameroon