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RE: UK Native Species Spotlight #2 The European Hedgehog
Sorry to hear they are disappearing. I do not know remember whether it was Enid Blyton or someone else who introduced me to them, but I do remember being extremely fond of hedgehogs living in Britain after reading a book.
And that was a relief because I had been told that they can shoot their spines at a person. Inaccurate stuff of nightmares.
The self-anointation that you talk about is making me rather curious. Thank you for sharing this.
The quills don't leave their bodies when they go into defence mode, they push them upwards so they are very sharp to touch. Porcupines can shoot their quills at people. Yeah the anointing is weird, I would love to know why they do it hopefully more research will occur and eventually we will find out!
You scared me for a while again, and then I wanted to be sure how I should act in case of a close encounter with a porcupine. So I went straight to YouTube and searched for "grisly video of porcupine shooting quills." The fourth result for me was a video from Smithsonian Channel with the title of "Can a Porcupine Shoot its Quills?" Since it was also a short video, I clicked on it with quivering finger and heart, and forced myself to watch it.
And then the narrator said they cannot shoot their quills. Any damage to tissue has to be a result of direct contact with the porcupine. It seems that I just have to be scared of damaging projectiles originating from man-made machines, and not from porcupines. You can watch the video here.
Isn’t it great when you learn something new. I was always informed they could yet having not worked with them yet in my career it’s never been something to question. Yet now I have been properly informed it would seem somethings we all have learnt and known is completely different. Yet if a predator was to attack a porcupine the quills will detach very easily and will latch onto their skin. This is where the misinformation comes from :)!
Agreed! :) With everything you said.