To defend themselves they will freeze. In fact, these rodents are amazing to learn about! A porcupine has approximately 30,000 quills on its body. With cape porcupine inclusive all porcupines have lined quills which is significant for their hairs. The answer is no; they cannot shoot their quills. If attacked they move sideways and backwards to dig their quills in to the attacker. You have to pull them out which is not an easy or painless task. All porcupines have a few traits in common. Their tail increases this length by 11-20cm (4.3-7.9in). Roughly 30,000 quills cover the whole body except for the stomach, nose and bottom of their feet. Can Porcupines Shoot Their Quills? They are herbivores and love to eat twigs, plants, leaves, nuts, berries and cloves which are often found close to the ground. During mating season, female initiates close contact with male. Porcupines are slow-moving animals and they use their quills as their defense. Soft quills will harden in the next few hours. North American Marten. The outermost layer comprises around 30,000 sharp quills. When baby porcupines are born their quills are soft, but within an hour they harden. Most of the porcupines are round. Old World Porcupines have cluster quills and the single quills of New World Porcupines are interspersed with hair, under fur and bristles. If these threats fail, the animal releases a pungent odor. Porcupines release an odor to alert predators to their presence. If you or your animal gets impaled, seek help quickly so the quills don’t become further embedded. Some more experienced predators learn to avoid the quills and kill the porcupine by biting its head or by flipping the porcupine onto its back to expose the unprotected belly. Therefore, it becomes necessary to take quick actions in order to relieve your pet from this painful experience at the earliest and avoid worse situations. The North American porcupine uses its quills as defense against predators. Habitat: Porcupines are found in woodland, savannah and forest biomes as well as rocky outcrops. Porcupine quills are hollow and have many tiny overlapping barb spines on the tips that make them extremely difficult to pull out when pierced and embedded into the skin. Porcupines chatter their teeth as a warning sound and shiver their bodies to display their quills. These circular quills can range up to 20 inches in length. The porcupine is any of 58 species of large, quill-coated rodents in the families Erethizontidae and Hystricidae. Contrary to popular belief, Indian crested porcupines (like all porcupines) cannot shoot their quills. No again. Porcupine quills have long been a favourite ornament and good-luck charm in Africa. So if you see a porcupine, better beware of this fact instead of hurting yourself. Porcupine quills are modified hair that has a thick coat and of keratin that is the same as the human nail. 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