[2] It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

They have a short tail and gray brown quills and feed on fruits, ant pupae, vegetables and roots.

This species was formerly sometimes assigned to Sphiggurus,[2] a genus no longer recognized since genetic studies showed it to be polyphyletic.

[3] The population formerly recognized as the orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupine (Sphiggurus villosus)[4] has been reclassified to this species.

[1] Its closest relatives are the bicolored-spined porcupine (Coendou bicolor) and the black dwarf porcupine (Coendou nycthemera).