Porcupines

Porcupine babies: the real Shy 5

© Chris Marais

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In the late afternoon, or very early in the morning, you may glimpse what looks like a Native American headdress scuttling about in the African bush.

But take another glance. It’s almost certainly a porcupine, a fascinating beast with an impressive defence system.

Like many of the secretive Shy 5 wild animals (which also include the meerkat, the aardvark, the aardwolf and the bat-eared fox), it is 1 of South Africa's nocturnal animals.

Although porcupine meat is said to be delicious, lions and other predators hesitate to take a porcupine on. When cornered, this prickly, large rodent issues a clear warning that is more like a war dance than anything else.

It erects a crest to enhance its size, growls ferociously, then stamps its feet, shaking its tail to rattle the hollow black and white quills. It’s an eerie and ominous sound.

If an attacker ignores this abundantly clear warning and persists in getting closer, the porcupine will abruptly reverse or lurch into its enemy.

The quills are only loosely connected to the skin, and once their sharp points penetrate the flesh of an adversary, they’re usually left there, leaving the predator whimpering and looking like a pincushion.

Porcupines usually spend the day in burrows, caves or rock crevices, and then come out at night looking for fruits, roots, bark, bulbs and seeds.

Game lodge owners often curse them because they seem unable to resist the gurgle of black PVC water pipes, sometimes even digging to get at them and chewing holes in them.

Porcupines occur throughout South Africa. The only place there’s no chance of seeing them is in the dry, hot Richtersveld in the north-western corner of the country.

Even so, they are rarely seen, mostly because they are nocturnal and because they shy away from attention.

It’s hard to say whether porcupine numbers are declining or not, but indications are that the trade in porcupine quills for jewellery and decoration has had a distinctly negative effect on populations.

And while it’s lucky to see a porcupine, you’ll need a lot more luck to see porcupine babies. Incidentally, they are born with their spines, but the quills only harden once they’re born.

All too often, you’ll find jewellery or curios made from porcupine quills. Avoid buying them. They are almost certainly contributing to the decline of the species.