Colophon

The animal on the cover of Defensive Security Handbook is a Malayan porcupine (Hystrix brachyura), which is a species of rodent native to South and Southeast Asia. This porcupine can be found from Nepal through northeast India, central and southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, peninsular Malaysia and throughout Borneo. It’s also found on the island of Penang, Malaysia.

The Malayan porcupine’s body is large, stout, and covered with sharp, rigid quills, which are modified hair. Quills on the upper body are rough and black with white or yellow stripes. Their short, stocky legs are covered in brown hairs; they have four claws on the front legs and five on the hind legs. Young porcupines have soft quills that become hard as they enter adulthood.

This porcupine often lives in forest habitats or open areas near forests. It inhabits dens near rocky areas by digging into the ground where it lives in small groups. They can also live in burrows connected by a network of trails or in a hole in tree bark or roots. The Malayan porcupine can give birth to two litters of two to three young annually; its gestation period is 110 days. They forage at night and typically feed on roots, tubers, bark, and fallen fruit, and sometimes on carrior and insects. During the day, they rest singly or in pairs. They can live up to 27 years.

Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.

The cover image is from Beeton’s Dictionary. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.