Let’s just dive right in. How much must it suck to birth a
porcupine?! Yeah, bet you never thought of that before.
Luckily, nature has addressed this issue. But for suspense,
I’ll save the solution to this prickly problem for the end. First, let’s cover
a little background knowledge about our splintery mammalian cousins.
Porcupines are big rodents, kind of like beavers. In fact, a
porcupine’s front teeth are just like that of the beaver. They are found in
North America, concentrated in Canada and Alaska. Their rumps are covered in
quills that lay down towards the rear. When the porcupine becomes agitated and
feels the need to defend itself, it bows its back up like a cat. Its quills raise
up in a primed a ready position.
Quills are modified hairs that are reinforced with lots of
stiff keratin. They can grow in clusters or can be evenly spaced out, depending
on the species. Quills are embedded in the muscles directly beneath the skin. Since the quills are akin to hair, they can fall out as part of a natural replacement cycle, or they can be pulled out by force. These lethal weapons conjure images of blood and strike fear in the hearts of people, making the porcupine one of the most misunderstood animals around.
Being attacked by a porcupine and ending up with painful quills sticking out of your flesh is a highly improbable event. Porcupines are
slow and lumbering creatures. Moreover, they cannot shoot out their quills. If an animal sees a porcupine as prey and throws its own body upon it in an attack,
quills will become lodged in it. But a porcupine has no ability to shoot out
its quills like Spiderman does spider webs. When you combine this revelation
with the fact that porcupines cannot chase you down, the only thing you have to
worry about is accidently stumbling upon a porcupine. And if that happens,
well, it’s just in the cards.
And now, let me leave you with
some pictures of porcupettes.
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Porcupettes are sooo cute!!
ReplyDeleteOne cool bit you left out is the the quills themselves have backward facing barbs that make it extremely difficult to pull them out. In fact the often times will continue to work their way DEEPER into the flesh. I got a few quills stuck in my posterior when I crawled under a tent platform in upstate NY. Evidently a porky had spent a few nights under there and left some behind...which then ended up in my behind. I also saw a slightly intoxicated Mohawk native catch a live porky on the side of the road up there. He made this swooping grab from head to tail that flattened the quills down and allowed him to grab it. I think the shooting myth comes from the fact that they will swish their little tail at you when you get close which might seem like they shot them out at you if we just kind of close and not paying attention and then ended up with a calf or hand full of quills.
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