I had never seen a porcupine before – not even in a zoo – but ask any resident of the Atlantic Maritime Provinces in Canada and they would say that these creatures are common there. However, further questioning might reveal that almost all their sightings were of dead specimens on the side of the highway. Porcupines are the size of the badgers which, in the UK, are the creatures that most often share a similar roadside fate.
I saw the sweet creature, shown in the short video above, in Irving Nature Park near Saint John in New Brunswick. I was very surprised to spot it in full daylight, feeding quietly in the undergrowth. It seemed completely oblivious to my presence as I stood and filmed it from the path. It suddenly loomed large in the camera lens as it walked straight towards me. I didn’t want to frighten it or get hurt by the defensive spines so I stepped back quickly – making a noise – and the porcupine became aware of me for the first time. The quills were briefly raised, but in my confused retreat, I failed to capture the moment on film. Then we both regained our equilibrium and the porcupine crossed the path right in front of me, having decided that the juicer young leaves on the other side of the path were more interesting than me.
COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2013
All Rights reserved
Jessica's Nature Blog 
Spine tingling!
LikeLike
You would certainly ‘tingle’ if you got any porcupine spines in your skin. Legend has it that these creatures shoot their spines into would-be predators but that isn’t true. It is just that the spines are very loosely attached and easily detach from the animal when it is touched – then they are equally difficult (and painful) to remove from the unfortunate creature that has touched the porcupine. They say that if you see a raccoon with porcupine quills stuck to their nose, then you know the raccoon is rabid because only a mad animal would go that close to a porcupine.
LikeLike