The 2020 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse announced Thursday that it has named an official mascot, a porcupine.

Named after the Southern Tutchone word for porcupine Däch’äw was created by 11-year-old Owen McDonald.

McDonald said in his brief story about his creation that the porcupine is “formidable on one side, like Yukon athletes, and warm and cuddly on the other, like Yukon hosts.”

Nyla Klugie-Migwana of the community engagement and protocol committee and also of the mascot selection committee said the bio he submitted with Däch’äw was really strong.

“We wanted something Northern and something that young people could relate to because the games are about the youth,” said Klugie-Migwana. “His message was really strong, we felt that the message was really good for the Arctic Winter Games.”

Over 40 entries were submitted depicting suggested mascots for the Games. The mascot had to be an original creation that was culturally relevant to the North.

McDonald decided on porcupine after researching previous Games mascots.

“I spent about three minutes on the internet looking for different ideas and what they had been doing before,” said McDonald. “I thought porcupine because it was the only reasonable thing that hadn’t been done already.”

McDonald said he has a passion for drawing and that is why he submitted an entry to the contest. He did not think his chances of winning were very high.

“Well, I didn’t think they were very high,” said McDonald. “I kind of just put it in. I was pretty surprised when I won.”

He said he was able to see the other entries and draw inspiration from them.

“Well they seemed pretty well and done,” said McDonald. “I took some ideas off of them, big eyes, cute, and cartoony.”

Klugie-Migwana said his submission hit all the boxes.

“The way he dressed his mascot and the way the porcupine looked and the First Nation name was very unique,” said Klugie-Migwana. “The committee is really happy with the selection.”

When asked if he would like to try on or even be the mascot McDonald smiled and said, “that would be awesome.”

Second place went to Natalie Jobin and her fox named Cece as part of a group submission from her Grade 5 class at Takhini Elementary School. The artistry of Phoenix Widley and her wolf cub named Cober took third.