When it feels threatened it raises its quills, rattles the hollow ones on its tail, stamps and reverses at speed into the attacker: the quills detach as they lodge, and the infection that follows can kill a leopard.
From Indian Crested Porcupine
It collects and gnaws bones it finds in the field to obtain calcium, and its burrows accumulate so many bone remains that palaeontologists study them as natural assemblages of the local fauna.
From Indian Crested Porcupine
Its prehensile tail curls upwards, not downwards as in the American monkeys: the anatomical difference is that the gripping pad is on the upper surface of the tail, not the lower.
From Brazilian Porcupine
Like all porcupines, it does not shoot its quills: they come loose at the slightest contact and have microscopic scales at the tip that make them hard to pull out, a detail that has inspired the design of surgical needles and medical adhesives.
From Brazilian Porcupine
Its quills are in fact modified hairs with microscopic barbed tips.
From North American Porcupine
It eats bark, leaves, shoots and herbaceous plants.
From North American Porcupine
It lives in forest, open tundra and desert scrub across much of North America.
From North American Porcupine
Its quills are not fired at a distance, as popularly believed: they come away easily on contact and lodge in any attacker that gets too close.
From Crested Porcupine

Ecosystems