Important Thought: Do Porcupines Prick...

No seriously. It's an important question: Do porcupines prick each other by accident? They must. How can they not, if they get in close proximity of each other?

More important, if they DO prick each other, what happens to them?

Even more important question than that - when porcupines are born, are there quills on the "porcupettes"? If so, are these stiff and sharp or soft? Do the quills hurt Mama when Junior is being born? Do the porcupettes hurt themselves while playing? Do the porcupettes hurt each other? If so, what do they do?

From answers, I looked up Sy Montgomery's book - The Curious Naturalist: A Porcupine's Private Life: How Porcupines Mate, Mingle, and Maneuver - and HA! We have answers! (If you haven't read Sy Montgomery, check out her book - "The Soul of an Octopus"- among other things, this books shows how incredibly intelligent octopuses are and how they feel).

From the introductory paragraph of "The Curious Naturalist: A Porcupine's Private Life" -

"... It's name is Latin for "quill-pig" but actually it's a rodent - a fifteen to thirty pound rodent covered with 30,000 three-inch quills. A giant quilled rodent that can also moan, wail, whine, cough, grunt, and tooth-chatter and can also dance and swim."

Now I have more questions. The sheer number of the quills - 30,000? Really? More than that, that animal produces a wide range of noises? How does a porcupine dance? With whom?

I read on.

Apparently, porcupines do accidentally 'quill' each other. So they take pains to avoid it. If a porcupine is entering a den it shares with others, it 'churrs' and squeaks to alert the others.

If they do injure each other, porcupines carry a "Medical Insurance Policy" against their own quills. Meaning, their quills contain a natural antibiotic (who knew?) - a fatty acid that slows down the growth of bacteria. So, while it hurts and is very painful, it does NOT get infected.

No wonder, porcupines are fairly serene creatures. If you wanted to watch one, you could for a while. Unless you do something really provocative or stupid, they would not run away (why would they - they are like an armored truck). So they rarely flee. If you walk alongside one, it would 'waddle along' and not 'raise a quill in annoyance'.

One more fact. Quills are sharp, painful, and can kill, but they also are hollow.

Which helps the porcupine swim. (Probably helps them dance too? Light on their feet?)

Finally, in response to my initial question -

During birth, Junior is soft-quilled.

To which I can only say, thank god.

Else Mommy Porcupine would have REALLY moaned, wailed, whined, grunted, and howled.