Valentine’s Day is approaching so here’s a heartwarming story about porcupine love.
Have you ever wondered how porcupines get close?
They’re notorious for their many quills with tips barbed like a fishhook. When the quill enters the flesh of another animal, it can’t be easily pulled out. Without intervention it continues to embed deeper and deeper.
Quills cover the back, sides and especially the tail of the porcupine. The tail can be swung to ensure good delivery of quills to an unwanted invader.
So how does the male porcupine approach the female?
Very carefully, looking for signs of consent.
It turns out a porcupine can control the angle of its quills. If the female is agreeable, she can relax her quills flat against her body and curl her wide tail up over her back, exposing the underside of her tail which doesn’t have quills.
A wise suitor sees the opportunity and doesn’t dawdle. These interactions usually occur in September and October. By Valentine’s Day, one or two porcupettes are developing inside the mother.
Porcupettes – the official term—are born in April or May. They are born with quills but the quills don’t harden until a few hours after birth. The mother’s belly has no quills, so the porcupettes can nurse safely.
The porcupettes, in turn, always flatten their quills in the presence of their mother. It’s most common for a porcupine to have a litter of one.
It seems like that would be safer.
To hear the voice of a porcupine, click on the audio link.
