I'm Coyote Peterson and that is the North American porcupine
as you can see, he's covered in quills. Get ready...
we're about to enter the SPIKE ZONE!
this morning the crew and I fueled up and set off down rugged
mountain roads into the high country of Montana
where we would get the chance to work with one of the most common and proudly
the second largest rodent in
North American the porcupine. Now this is true porcupine territory right here
all these tall pines... hillsides
perfect place for them to be rummaging around and all this loose soil
for roots and berries and all sorts of delicious porcupine treats
these black and white forest dwellers may look adorable and cuddly
but as we all know and I was about to experience their
equipped with nature's reactive armor just beneath a layer sensitive guardhairs
you will find thousands a barbed quills that will make any would be predator
think twice about considering the porcupine for an entree.
Now I've never seen a porcupine before in the wild and I've never worked with a porcupine
So for me this is gonna be a really unique experience. The reason I'm able to
get so close to this porcupine
is because it was actually raised in captivity so this little guy's used to being around
humans
and sometimes cameras this is the second largest rodent that lives
in North America trumped only by its aquatic cousin the beaver
now porcupines have incredible claws
they've four claws on the front and actually a vestigial thumb
which allows them to quickly climb up trees to evade predators
you can't get to a tree in time what they do is exactly this
show the rump side and all those quills you get your nose close to that
and it's gonna be a face full of spikes. Today my goal is to intentionally get quilled by
a Porcupine
yes you heard me right I'm going to get quilled by a porcupine
I'm going to show you the right way to remove these painful barbed quills from either
yourself
or in most cases from snout of your curious pet
Now I'm being told that when I perform this example I'm gonna get close to
forty or fifty quills in the back of my hand I hope you guys enjoy this at home
this one no way cause any harm to the porcupine their quills are nothing more than
modified hairs
and they continually grow over the life the animal the only one who's going to
experience any discomfort
is me. Tell you where you don't wanna get quelled... in the face
that would be pretty bad
Alright, what I want to do is agitate those guardhairs and then he should trust his
tail up
into my hand. Alight are you ready? I love how I get myself into these things...
one, two, ouch yep!
there we go that's a hand full of quills. now the ones on the top of my hand
really aren't that bad it's those ones right there
you see how deep those are into my finger? It hurts to move my finger right now
I mean I think they touch bone. It hurts
a lot, um I think most of them are going to be pretty easy to get out
those two are going to be extremely painful. Well I got a handful the quills here
from my little friend the porcupine right there, I'm gonna show you guys
how to get these out of either your hand or your dog
have a feeling this is gonna be pretty painful. Alright come on lets go...
The one in my finger hurts sooo bad right now
now it's most likely that your dog is gonna get quilled by a Porcupine
and you know you might think I'm just gonna pull that quill straight-out
thats no gonna work these have microscopic barbs on the end and one of the cool techniques
of the porcupine quill is that once it's in there it works deeper and deeper and
deeper
so want to get these out as quick as you possibly can. Now I never recommend
that you go out and get yourself quilled by a Porcupine and the reason that I did this
today
was to show you how to remove quills from your hand and the reason that I snipped off
the tops of all the quills
is that actually releases pressure inside of the quill, relaxes the barbs
and now they should release out my hand a bit easier
now what I want to do is gently grab the quills twist them
and pull straight up. I'm gonna remove the ones aren't as deep first. I wanna get all those
barbs
and those little points out of there because they can cause an infection
and that's the last thing that I want to happen. If you were a mountain lion
a bear or a coyote and you got a face full of these quills I mean
its debilitating I can barely move my hand and these animals wouldn't be able to then go out and
continue hunting
I can see why eventually
this could cause a large predator like that to die
wow my hand hurts... okay these are the last three
its not like a bandaid
and don't just pull it off. You just pull these out it gonna rip all the skin out with it because those
tiny little microscopic
barbs okay I'm gonna twist
and pull straight up thats the goal
ahhh geez!
Ah you can see the blood pouring out now ...you get that shoot with the blood?
on my gosh yeah that really hurt...
you good?
oh my gosh... ah my gosh that real
I'm like...it was like I could feel it pulling all the way out through the skin
ouch!
oh my goodness
wow i mean that was buried into my hand
up to the white that is a serious quill
in my coyote paw
moral of this story do not get quilled by a Porcupine
I hope you guys learn something here today if you are ever quilled
snip off the top it will release the pressure grab
twist and pull it out. I'm Coyote Peterson be brave
stay wild we'll see on the next adventure
If you thought that was one wild adventure
check out these other animal encounters and don't forget subscribe to follow me
and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail this episode a breaking trail
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