Years ago, I remember being on a hike with a friend in the Yukon when suddenly his dog let out a pained yelp. We rushed to see what had happened and found a small creature with a lovely silky-soft coat of long black hairs that had clearly been harmed.
None of us knew what it was until we looked at the dog’s face. Oh dear, the dog had found and mauled a porcupette – a baby porcupine.
At birth, the spines or quills are soft but harden within several hours. The poor dog’s face was covered in spines and the tiny porcupette was clearly dying. It was a sad day for both.
Porcupines are large rodents found in both South and North America. Because they are such slow-moving animals, porcupines rely on their spines as their defence against predation and harm.
Porcupines are said to be the only animal that humans can walk faster than. Once my son and I were walking in the alpine up in the Babine Mountains when we came across a porcupine. It tried to find a place to hide but there were no trees and no other place to hide except for a rock about a third of its size.
It immediately stopped, tucked its head facing inward to the rock. Using the principle ‘If I can’t see you, you can’t see me’, it stayed there until we walked away.
Contrary to popular opinion, porcupines do not “throw” their quills but rather they thrash their tails when being attacked by a predator. The spines have backward pointed barbs on their tips, so they attach quickly to the attacker’s skin and are released.
The spines can move as fast as one inch per hour and may gradually work their way deep into the body tissues potentially causing serious internal damage to the predator. They are covered with a greasy antibiotic coating so they rarely cause infection.
Back in the ‘80s when I was acting as the first Park Host at Coldfish Camp in Spatsizi Park, my husband and two kids came in with me for the first 14 days but then went home and I was left alone — completely — with the nearest road at least 50 miles away and not a single visitor for eight days.
One night I awoke to hear snuffling, grunting noises coming from the space underneath my cabin floor, which was open to the outside. The floor was made with planks that had narrow gaps between them. As I was gripped with fear, I reasoned that a grizzly could conceivably get its claws in between two planks, pull downwards and rip the planks apart… well I’m sure I can be excused for fantasizing a bit when I was alone in the wilderness in the middle of the night, can’t I?
Next morning, when I heard the same grunting snuffles coming from outside on the porch, I cautiously peeked out of the window and laughed as I came face to face with a porcupine. It heard me and shuffled off to explore the tiny woodshed outside. I joined it and after I imitated its snuffle grunts, we had great conversations and became good friends.
Fishers are one of their main predators and avoid the spines by attacking the face and then ripping open the soft underbelly. Soft belly to soft belly also ensures ‘safe’ sex and happy nursing.
For reasons not clearly understood, porcupine populations have been declining rapidly lately.
