A pig-like creature that stabs its enemies to death. An adorable danger fuzzball who
has taken all over the world by taking on its greatest predators. The reason why MC
Hammer wrote Can’t Touch This. This is the Porcupine
Hi, I’m Danielle Dufault and you’re watching Animalogic. Today we’re deep in the forests
of Ontario looking for a little rodent who is known to be one of the sharpest tools in
the shed. Porcupines.
Now before we go any further, I’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Wren.
Wren is a website that allows you to calculate your carbon footprint and then immediately
do something about it.
You might think that the host of a nature channel would have a tiny carbon footprint,
but because of production, I do a lot of travelling—or did a lot of travelling—and often have to
order supplies online for our shoots.
With Wren, I was able to see how my lifestyle impacts my carbon footprint, and then offset
it by funding projects that plant trees and protect rainforests.
Give it a shot. Hop on, answer a few questions, find out how you can reduce your footprint,
and offset what you have left after reducing by signing up to make a monthly contribution.
You’ll get regular updates from the projects you’re supporting, and you’ll even get
to see the trees you’ve planted, and what your money is spent on.
We’ve partnered with Wren to plant 10 extra trees for the first 100 people who sign up
using our referral link. Head to wren.co/start/animalogic to learn more.
There are dozens of species around the world
but they can be easily separated by their home range. Old world porcupines live in Africa,
Asia, and Europe. And new world porcupines are found in the Americas.
Despite their similarities, they’re not closely related. New world porcupines, as
well as all other new world rodents, evolved from rat-like rodents who likely crossed the
Atlantic from Africa to South America on rafts. Regardless of their origins they had the same
problem on both sides of the pond: giant predators. Lions, tigers, hyenas, wolves bears, even,
sabertooth cats. These pointy rats had to get tough or get eaten alive.
The most well-known old world porcupine is also the largest porcupine in the world. The
Crested porcupine, which lives throughout Africa and Italy, can be up to 25 kg and over
a meter long, including tail. This makes them the largest rodent in the world, after capybaras
and beavers. Here in North America we have the slightly
smaller North American porcupine, which are about as long as their African cousins, but
much leaner at about 15 kg. The tropics of Central And South America are home to the
tree porcupines. They’re way smaller, but usually way weirder.
If you’re going on a jungle expedition, make sure you don’t let a spiky tree land
on your head and get stuck there. And I’m serious, they fall out of trees a lot.
These spiky boys vary in appearance but they’re all comfortable up in the tree canopy. Predators
have a tough time getting up there, but felines have learned to shake them off the trees,
so they can turn them over on the ground and bite them in the belly.
There are 17 species and most of them haven’t been properly documented yet, as they live
in dense forests, high in the tree canopy, and are famously hard to spot.
They are some of the most alien-looking species in the world, and these are my favourite.
The Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine looks like a pig mated with a monkey and their baby joined
an 80s glam rock band. They’re about the size of a squirrel and live in the tropical
rainforests of Mexico and Central America. Jaguarundis, ocelots, and especially margays
are their main predators. Their superpower is being able to hang upside down from their
prehensile tail. Their close cousins, the hairy black tailed
porcupines are found in Northern South America. These guys have long hair that cover their
quills. This combo of long bodies and fuzzy hair with spikes underneath give them a bit
of caterpillar vibe, but trust us, these are mammals like you and me.
And finally the Brazilian porcupine. This is the most common species in South America
and despite their name, they can be found in every country of the region. Their body
is both furry and spiny, and their lighter quills make them look like they have highlights.
Their face is fleshy and pink, which gives them a pig-like appearance.
This superficial resemblance is what gave them their English name. Porcupine is derived
from old French and means spiny pig. Or a squirrel having a really bad hair day.
Here in North America, our stabbiest rodent may seem a bit dull in comparison, but it
has some very powerful adaptations to protect itself
from predators.
Porcupines have aposematic colouration. They're usually dark brown, but they range in colour
from yellow to black with bright white spines. The highlights make their their quills more
visible to warn predators of their devastating effect.
They’re serrated and sharp, which means they go into flesh with incredible ease,
but their barbs make them extremely difficult and painful to remove. Some predators have
been known to carry quills in their mouth and face for years.
The ease with which quills come out made early naturalists believe that they could shoot
them, but luckily to all of us who live near them, this turned out to be false.
An adult has about 30,000 quills that cover most of its body, except for their face and
underside. Underneath the skin, they have muscles that can make the quills erect on
demand, which is especially when they’re trying to signal a predator to back off.
When the quills are standing up they become easier to detach to impale attackers.
At the same time, they emit a smelly liquid odour that sometimes convinces predators that
this won’t be an easy or delicious meal. But being covered head to toe in spikes has
its downsides, and sometimes porcupines accidentally stab themselves with their own quills.
In order to prevent infections they have developed a coating of antibiotics to keep themselves
healthy. Imagine being so dangerous that you need to
make your own antibiotics? Surprisingly, their biggest predator is not
the puma, but the deadly fisher. This predator knocks them off trees and tires them out on
the ground before turning them over and eating them from the underbelly like a bowl of soup.
In case you were wondering, when they mate they put their quills down to prevent accidents.
Babies are born with tiny quills that get harder and bigger over time. Aren’t they
the cuddliest needle balls? Aw.
Speaking of cute naming conventions, a group of porcupines is called a prickle.
Sadly this youngster was separated from his mother because she passed away when he was
only a week old. On the bright side porcupines become fairly
self dependent as of one week old. So the sanctuary here has been nursing him
back to health and he will be capable of living on his own soon enough.
So what should we talk about next. Please
let me know in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe for new episodes every week.
Thanks for watching. See ya!