South African porcupines (Hystrix africaeaustralis) are the largest rodents in our country and are bigger than those found in the Americas.
Many folk don’t know these interesting animals mate for life and that there is no specific mating season applicable to them. Some farmers regard them as pests because they are attracted to vegetable gardens.
This photo of a visiting Cape porcupine was emailed to me by Mtunzini’s resident vet paramedic Elbé Beukes, who is a follower of this column and has in the past sent me numerous interesting natural observations from crocodiles on the local beach to rare mongooses which frequent her garden.
This porcupine paid a visit last week week and Elbé caught it on her cell phone camera at three in the morning after being aroused by their dogs.
It is an unfortunate fact that the regular burning off of leaves of the sugar cane crop in Zululand results in the incineration of thousands of animals which live in the cane fields, from snakes to small antelopes, also causing them to flee in panic in any direction from the flames.
Elbé can’t say whether her visitor falls into the category of this type of refugee, but doubts it.
I have eaten porcupines on extended hunting trips where the guides would pack them tightly into thick clay balls, completely covering the quills and then bake them for hours in a hot fire, after which the clay ball is cracked open and the flesh is scooped out and sucked off the quills.
Not everyone’s cup of tea I guess, but a really delicious veld meal before turning in under the stars.
Fallacy
There is a fallacy that in their own defence, porcupines shoot out their quills at enemies and predators, but this is not the case.
A cornered porcupine first rattles its quills in a display of anger then turns hind-side and presents a quiver of sharp quills to the threat, which is enough to scare off experienced lions or leopards.
Numerous large felines have died painful deaths from inflammation and infections resulting from porcupine quills deeply embedded in their heads.
Porcupines weigh in at from 10kg to 20kg with exceptionally large specimens reaching up to 30kg. Males and females do not differ significantly in size, the eyes and ears being relatively small and the mobile whiskers quite short.
They eat fruits, roots, tubers, tree bark and bulbs and it has been noted that their ring-barking of certain trees has a beneficial effect on the continuation of savannah eco-systems.
Relative to rodent life-spans the porcupines are long-lived, making it in nature to between 10-12 years, while in captivity, when they become quite tame, they can live to 20 years. The young are born with their incisor teeth fully erupted and boast full sets of teeth at about two years.
Although porcupine couples share raising the babies, they forage alone, scent mark their territories and jointly defend their burrows against predators.
