Gary J Sibio
Before finding this video on YouTube, I never thought much about porcupines. I didn’t know that they made noises or what foods they liked to eat. My only thoughts about them centered on avoiding getting a butt-ful of quills if I ever ran into one.
I looked them up on Wikipedia and discovered that there are actually quite a few different species of porcupines. They can also be found in a variety of locations. They are all rodents, but they are divided into Old World Porcupines, which are found in southern Europe, southern and western Asia and most of Africa, and New World Porcupines which are found throughout most of North and South America.
The main feature of the porcupine is the quill which is actually hair covered in keratin, a protein found in the horns of some mammals, the scales and claws of reptiles including the shells of turtles, he feathers, beaks and claws of birds and the baleen “teeth” of filter-feeding whales.
The quills are attached to muscles and are movable and will stick in the skin of anyone or anything that gets too close. These quills will fall out of the porcupine. However, it is not true that the porcupine can shoot quills at a target.
The video is credited to Zooniversity1 and was posted on 01 Dec 2011, so it’s a few years old.
great!!
Thanks
Not that I’d want to pet him.
My family has a farm in the Eastern Cape and the porkies are a real pain to them. They eat the crops. Great post. Thanks.
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Woot!
🙂
This porcupine has some personality
Very true. 🙂
How cute
I thought it was cute also even though cute is not the word I usually associate with porcupines.
This porcupine really talks! Lovely video, thanks for sharing
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
That was something new to learn.
It was new to me as well.
I never knew this about porcupines. Not around here much.
I’ve never seen one in the wild.