The field of hay is coming up nicely, and I thought I’d shoot a picture of it for you.
But then I noticed something was moving, fairly slowly, fairly near me. When I realized what it was, I got out of the truck and went over with my phone set on “camera.”
Years ago I got to watch a dog get a faceful of quills (a sad experience for all!) and I can tell you it’s a myth that they can shoot quills. What they can do is spin very quickly, and whap stuff with the edge of their tail. You’ll notice the predominance of quills along the edge? It’s quite a weapon.
I assume that’s all controlled by erector pilii muscles – when I got near him the entire shape of his quill-deployment changed into that weird belly-band, as he spread the quills for maximum deterrence.
Porcupines are not very bright and not very fast. He kept trying to leave but I could easily head him off and take more pictures. I did not interfere with him long, we were both tired and had somewhere else to be.
Look how tall the hay is getting – that’s 2 weeks of growth!
Technically it’s arrector pili muscles. But apparently Porcupines have evolved some kind of interconnected web of muscle that moves whole sections of their quill coat, rather than an individual arrector muscle for each one. There’s some kind of autonomic cascade effect that happens without further input. I expect the fact their spines are easily detachable makes it easier to arrange this way – rodents like hedgehogs with non-detachable spines don’t seem to have the same arrangement, but control theirs with arrector muscles like normal hairs.
I like them. But my experiences on the downside with them have all been equine. The last one was when my mammoth donkey either got curious about one, or actually tried to go and paw at it, who knows and she is not saying. Both front legs and her lower muzzle were covered in quills, and donkeys will not bear pain for trust of a human, so we had to haul her to the vet (10:00 at night) and use a “medical restraint” so we could get all the quills out. That was an interesting hour and a half. I thought the quills were impressive, until I saw the bill. That was more impressive. I hope all the porcupines stay way up in trees and away from the donkey.
kestrel@#2:
The last one was when my mammoth donkey either got curious about one, or actually tried to go and paw at it, who knows and she is not saying. Both front legs and her lower muzzle were covered in quills, and donkeys will not bear pain for trust of a human, so we had to haul her to the vet (10:00 at night) and use a “medical restraint” so we could get all the quills out. That was an interesting hour and a half.
Oh my I bet that was something.
Of my dogs, there was the smarter one, and the goofy one. After his first encounter with porcupines, the smarter one decided that his role was to watch the goofier one get quills in his nose. The first time that happened, they got an expensive vet visit and some happy drugs. The second time it happened, I pulled the quills out with vice grips and there was a very unhappy dog who never did that again. I have long wondered whether the vet trip/drugs was not a ‘learning experience’ because of the drugs effect on memory.
Somewhere I have some extreme close-ups of a porcupine. It was a very large one, too. And a strategic genius. When it saw me, it climbed to the top of a small bush and went “ooops. ran out of bush” then sat there making growling noises at me while I photographed it.
Another time I cornered a porcupine and it suddenly played dead (or something) – it stopped moving and just lay there. So I picked up a handy pine board about 7′ long and poked the porcupine in the ass with it. >>WHAM<< the porcupine was very alive and spun around like a lightning bolt* and hammered the board with its tail, leaving several quills in it. It was impressive! I will not get near a porcupine. (* I know lightning doesn't spin)
cartomancer@#1:
But apparently Porcupines have evolved some kind of interconnected web of muscle that moves whole sections of their quill coat, rather than an individual arrector muscle for each one.
That makes sense – when they reconfigure their spikes it’s like this clenching wavy movement across their whole lower body. It’s like how some birds reconfigure their entire appearance in a threat display. They’re not a scratch on an octopus, of course.
“Hey Porky, does you ever roll over at night and poke yo’self?”
“Yes, and it SERVES ME RIGHT!…. don’t like nobody.”
Actually, I think at that early point in the strip, he wasn’t even Porky Pine, just a generic porcupine. I will have to look it up when I get home today.
Johnny Vector@#5:
“Hey Porky, does you ever roll over at night and poke yo’self?”
I always wondered about porcupine mating practices.
I believe the punchline yoyu’re looking for is “Very carefully.”
cubist@#7:
“Consensually”?
cubist@#7
Not just the punchline, the reality too!
Wondered? Why? This is a simple mystery to figure out. Just type “porcupine mating” in YouTube. Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go2Ccw1G25o is one of the results. And, yes, it looks consensual.