On Sunday we went to Coyote Point Museum, a wildlife park and interactive museum for children in an enormous green recreation area, just south of San Francisco Airport. I hasten to add I have no children, but that never puts me off going to places which might have porcupines.

North American Porcupine, photo by Gina Sanfillipo

It was in two halves, the first a mini-zoo with outdoor exhibits containing Californian wildlife. The coyote was beautiful, asleep and basking in the sun, and the Channel Island fox was also really cool, with really unusual bright ginger patches in amongst mainly brown fur.

The Golden Eagle, badger and toad also get honourary mentions, but the best one was obviously the porcupine who was just waking up as we arrived and seemed to be thinking about washing his paws. I’d seen one before at San Francisco zoo and thought it was amazing then – I had never realised porcupines could climb but they have amazing balance and speed and they spend most of their time in trees. They are nocturnal animals found throughout Canada, Alaska and the west and northeast parts of the United States and are the second largest rodent in North America, second only to the beaver.

The second section was an indoor museum with interactive physics exhibits for children, kind of like a budget version of Launch Pad, so we only skimmed over that, but it seemed pretty well done and there were loads of kids trying them out. Definitely recommended for those with children and for everyone else, the whole area is absolutely beautiful for a day out with picnic, so worth dropping in to while you’re there for some unusual animals.