WEBVTT - Porcupines: Little Stabby Cutie Pies 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.560 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of five 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:12.640 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.600 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:20.480 and this is Stuff you Should Know about porcupines, which 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:25.119 this is a great idea, Chuck, good job. You know 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:31.040 the porcupine. When you take away all those quills, it's 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.560 just a cute little guinea pig basically a giant one. Yeah, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:40.880 a cute big guinea pig. Speaking of cute porcupines, Dude, 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.280 do you remember Teddy Bear the porcupine kind of went 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.559 a little viral a few years ago. You have to 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:53.680 watch Teddy Bear the porcupine, specifically Teddy Teddy Bear the 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.680 porcupine doesn't like to share on YouTube. And it is 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.000 this porcupine eating corn on the cop and making all 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.920 these sounds like cousin it and it is one of 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.240 the cutest things I've ever seen in my entire life. Yeah, 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:13.399 we want to shout out Live Science, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.920 the San Diego Zoo, and a couple of other websites 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:20.280 that I coupled together this wonderful bit on one of 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.880 our wonderful animal friends in the world. We'd love to 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.360 do these shows. Uh. It just made me think, have 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.440 you seen the octopus documentary thing yet? No? I haven't. 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.360 I'ven't been like kind of popping up in my in 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.360 my periphery. I don't really know what it is. Is 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.840 it just about OCTOPI well, it's it's called My Octopus Teacher. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:42.840 I haven't seen it yet, but I just know the 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.840 the deal is this guy kind of gets to know 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.680 one octopus and that's, you know, a nice story in 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.160 suos is all. I know? That's neat. We'll have to 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.320 watch that. Yeah, I can't. I can't wait. But um, 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.000 and I mentioned that because you know, we've a long 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.320 said that the octopus is our favorite animal, but feel 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.920 like almost every time we've done one on an animal, 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.760 it's on something that we love. And boy do I 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:10.040 love the quill pig. I do too. Yeah, apparently that's 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:15.480 what the their Latin name means, quill pig. That is 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.600 fantastic um. And it turns out a chuck that there 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:23.119 are basically two groups that porcupines get lumped into. There's 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.320 a bunch of different gene genei yeah that's right, and 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.919 species um. But there they basically fall under two categories. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.560 It's Old World, which is Europe, Africa, Asia, and the 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.600 New World, which is North, South and Central America. Um. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.000 And if you saw a you know, porcupine in South 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:47.280 America and you saw one in you know, the Himalayas, 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.360 you probably would be like, that's porcupine. That's porcupine too. 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.399 They're not radically different like some Old World and New 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.880 worlds um um animals are. Yeah. But something I saw 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.919 that was interesting was that they evolved separately what one 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:08.000 of those what is it called co evolutions or whatever. No, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.600 I didn't see that. That's that is crazy. I saw that, 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.840 and I only saw it in one place, So I 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.720 think that might have been a personal hypothesis as somebody 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.200 who got them maybe website. I saw it somewhere though. Uh. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.919 And then the two actually, um, the Old World in 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.480 the New World have less in common than they do 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.960 individually with like some other rodents in their area. Yeah, 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.920 so I'm actually not surprised to hear that. But the 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.320 one thing that they do have in common across the 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.960 board is that they have quills, and that they use 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.440 their quills defensively. Now what their quills look like, um, 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.440 how they use their quills. Um. There's a lot of 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.880 other distinctions and differences between Old World and New World, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.200 but they all have quilts. They're all porcupines. That seems 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.600 to be the thing that that binds them. It's the 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.080 tie that binds that family. Yeah, and it's just it's 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.480 easy to take the porcupine for granted, I think, and 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.720 just say, yeah, that the little animal with all those quills. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.760 But when you take a step back and look at 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:15.320 it and think about the evolution of the porcupine, that uh, 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.480 like I said, it's sort of would be a very large, 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.800 sort of cute, little fluffy guinea pig, but it probably 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.880 got eaten a lot um and then you know, they 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.600 said nuts to this nature steps in. It's like, all right, 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:33.200 how about this. What if we were just animal pincushions 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.120 such that if he came anywhere near us, you would 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.000 be stabbed repeatedly if you tried to eat us. Like, 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.680 It's one of the most amazing evolutionary adaptations I've ever seen. Yeah, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.719 and I mean they they can really use those things too. Um. 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.360 There's a longstanding myth that they can shoot them, which 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.240 is not true. But apparently even Aristotle fell for that one. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.919 And what a dummy. But they can use them in 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.800 some pretty interesting way. And you hit the nail on 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.920 the head when you said, you know, step back if 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.599 you see a porcupine, that is good advice. You should 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.400 probably step back because depending on these the species, or 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.960 whether it's Old World or New World, those quills can 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.719 mess you up pretty good. Yeah. But also you know, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:20.599 get nearby and take a look, like they're not going 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.479 to come after you. That porcupine is a very kind 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:28.680 hearted animal and those are for defense. A porcupine is 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.000 never going to charge you and you know, leap at 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:36.680 your belly to to put quills all in your stomach. Um, 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.839 So take a little look, admire it for what it is. UM. 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.200 I think you know, to talk about porcupine is a 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.440 lot of this is talking about the Old World versus 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:52.839 the Rush version. Yeah, so the big differences that I saw, UM, 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.719 And there's lots of differences between different species within each 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.400 of these groups, but the Old World versus New World 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.919 has some big differences between a UM, and one of 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.720 them is that Old World are typically terrestrial porcupines. They 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.720 spend most of their lives on the ground. UM. They 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.279 live in burrows or caves, or rock dens and New 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.120 World porcupines they live on the ground too. They live 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.599 in burrows, but they're also very capable of climbing trees. UM, 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.840 and they'll they'll spend a significant amount of time and 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.640 sometimes nest in trees. And there are some species that 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:30.279 spend virtually their whole lives and trees, almost like sloths. Yeah. UM. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:34.560 Quill wise, uh, the New World porcupines quills are going 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.560 to be shorter and smaller in general. I think they're 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.800 about four to ten four inches ten centimeters UM. The 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:46.280 Old World dudes and ladies they can get very long. 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.279 They can have quills up to twenty inches long. UM. 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.520 They can be marked with UM black and white bands. 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.440 And what they can do is these Old World guys 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.159 can puff them up UM, so they stand up and 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.840 are more intimidating and look Also. I mean it's weird 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.320 because it's it's like multi fuld like four or five 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.400 different things they do. By doing this, they look larger, 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.680 So that's always something that UM vulnerable animals try to 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.040 do in the wild. They look like a skunk a 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.160 little bit because of the black and white marking down 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.160 their back. They actually have a defensive musk kind of 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.160 like a a skunk, but just not nearly as bad. Yeah, 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.240 So they try to imitate a skunk a little bit. Um, 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.840 they look bigger, they they rattle. They can shake those 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.240 things and rattle them, which is another great adaptation to say, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:35.880 like get away from me and don't try and eat me. 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.800 And supposedly that works pretty well too. Yeah, totally. And 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:44.680 then if all else fails, they're stabby. They are stabby. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.840 So um. Sometimes the old world ones will actually charge 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.080 backwards toward a predator if they're feeling like they want 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.880 to stand their ground. Um. And that's usually when they're 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.239 caught out in the open. If they have a place 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.280 to hide, they'll stick their head in that used to 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.320 hide and then puff out their quills and make themselves 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.320 hard to get at. Um. But if they're on the open, 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.280 they may decide that they're going to fight off this 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:12.040 predator and they'll charge backward. And one other adaptation I 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.040 saw which I thought was was awesome. They'll have the 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.880 predator chase it and then they'll stop all of a sudden, 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:19.960 and the predator will run into them in their quills 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.440 for real, and then you hear the sound effect. Yeah, 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.200 exactly and then it's too late. Yeah. I mean it's 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.760 interesting because those quills, even though they puff them out, 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.640 they are pointed generally in the reverse direction, which you know, 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:37.600 which is why they have to back up into something 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.120 to to quill them or like you said, bury them. 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.240 Just throw on that that parking break real quick, and 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.120 all of a sudden, that fox has got a faceful 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.600 of quill. Right. So that Old world UM contains a 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.080 couple of species that are called crested porcupines, and they 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.120 basically look like if the quills were like an umbrella 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.640 open at the back of their head and just kind 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.000 of sticks out like that, and like you said, it 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.559 makes them look a lot bigger. They're a lot more dangerous. Um. 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.640 The big difference with quills between the Old World and 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.959 the New World, in addition to being shorter, is um 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.839 Old world porcupines are covered in quills. That's all they have. 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.320 Like they have Like I don't know if we said 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.040 or not, but quills are just modified hair. Um, They're 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:26.959 made of caratin. They're they're just like hair. They're just 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:32.520 ways stabbier than hair that you and I have, meats, fingernails. Basically, Yeah, 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.520 that's a great way to put it. And Old World 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.120 porcupines that's all they have our quills UM. New World 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.680 porcupines have quills that are also mixed in with um 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:46.560 fur like an undercoat, longer hairs UM, and their quills 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.439 kind of stand up and are are used for defense. 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.720 That's not just it's not all that they have UM. 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.560 And the other thing about their quills is that they 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:59.600 have little barbs, and New World um porcupines barbs make 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:04.840 the New World quails way more dangerous than Old World quils. Yeah. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.600 It's like a little fishhook basically, and it'll instead of 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.840 just poking right into you, it'll actually snag in your 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.679 flesh and makes it, like you said, way way tougher 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.720 to get out. UM. Much harder time removing a New 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.560 World quill than an Old World quill. But those New 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:26.400 World guys are uh because their quills start further back. 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.360 You get the feeling if you just and I wouldn't 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.000 recommend this, but if you just go very gently and 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.960 just say, hey, little guy, you never do that. I 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:37.800 just I just want to give you a scritch under 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.600 the under the chin, and I think you might enjoy it. 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:45.079 And I'm gonna move very slowly, just don't turn around, 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.040 and you'll you'll have a really good time. I'd like 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.240 to include a disclaimer here, don't do it. You guys 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.360 should not listen to Chuck right now. He's doling out 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.880 some really terrible advice. Yeah, it's just because those quills 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.959 start further back. They got that cute little head and face, 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.320 and it just makes you want to give him a scratch. Yeah, no, totally. 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.960 Like if you watch Teddy Teddy Bear videos, um, Teddy 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.480 Bear the porcupine, you will want to go get one 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.160 as a pet. There's another one I saw called Diva, 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.920 and she's a baby porcupine. She's adorable. Um, yeah, you 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.640 totally want to do that. And I'm sure there are 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.160 ways to handle them. But I also saw, you know, 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.880 one of those zoo guys on a late night talk 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.679 show and he had I think an African crested porcupine 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:29.959 on his lap and that thing was not at all 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.480 worried or scared or um in any sort of defense mode. 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:35.880 And that dude was in pain just letting this thing 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.679 sit on his lap because I don't know. You said, 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:40.680 you know, they look like guinea pigs, and I said, 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.600 overgrown guinea pigs. Some of these things can get really big. 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.760 There's a cape porcupine. I think it's the biggest one. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.839 They get up to like sixty five pounds. Sixty pounds 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:55.520 is like a large dog and with quills though, with 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:59.640 the quills puffed up. No, like there's sixty five pounds, 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.120 you're sound. And then but imagine a sixty five pound 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.480 dog with those quills. That's that's dangerous. Yeah, what I meant. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.480 I know they don't actually weigh more when they puff up, 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.840 but they can when they put those quills out, they 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.440 can look two to three times their size. So yeah, 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.200 imagine that thing looks enormous. And actually I don't do 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.400 this much, but I'm watching that that thing eat that 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:23.400 corn on the cob right now. Isn't that adorable? Yeah, 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:24.960 I have to have the sound down, so I'm gonna 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.040 go back and watch it. You have to hear the sound, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.079 like the sound does it. But even without the sound, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.199 he's just awfully cute. Yeah, it kind of They kind 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.520 of look like beavers a little bit too, and they 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.719 are related as fellow rodents. Um here, I think we 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.360 should take a break. So I'm getting kind of worked 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.959 up here, and we'll come back and talk more about 0:12:44.960 --> 0:13:05.720 these cute little stabby suckers right after this. Okay, Charles, 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:11.040 we're back, and um, we've been talking mostly about quills. Yeah, 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.679 so one more thing about quills, and there's going to 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:15.679 be more than one more thing about quils, let's be honest. 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.520 But we said they couldn't shoot them. What they can do? 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.600 These things do fall out just like hair, and they 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.800 grow just like fingernails and will eventually fall so when 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.480 they shake, they if they have loose quills, they can 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:33.320 fly off. But they're still not like shooting, like Aristotle said, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:38.080 like deadly needle darts. No, but they can be problematic, 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.560 like these things can puncture the sidewalls of tires. I 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.320 was reading them the blog of some tire company K 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.920 A L. Tires I think up in the Yukon, and 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.640 they said that it's actually it can be a problem 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.839 like on some roads. Yeah that if you're out in 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:56.920 the middle of nowhere and you run over a porcupine quill, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.480 you're you're you're probably going to get a flat. That's 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.840 how I thinks. Tough those things are. Well, that's sad. 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.360 What for your tire, no for the for your afternoon? Well, No, 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.520 you're not running over Are you still watching Teddy Bear videos? No? 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.479 I thought you said if you run over a porcupine, 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.599 it can fine quill. Oh, well, being what is it? 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.520 Just a loose quill on the road. Yeah, exactly, that's 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:21.320 what I'm saying, Like just a loose quill laying on 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.240 the road. If you run over it goes into your sidewall, 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:25.280 You're probably going to get a flat tire. That's how 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.000 tough those things are. Okay, I thought you meant if 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.120 you actually run over a porcupine and you have like 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.280 a bunch of quills, I that would probably do it too, 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:34.800 especially if the porcupine was in a defensive procedure. But 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.280 the porcupine doesn't have to die in this case for 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:41.920 you to go flat tire. So regardless of that sadness 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.160 they there is sadness and that despite this great adaptation 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:50.200 and this great defense mechanism, they still can be hunted. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.280 Um lions can still hunt them human people. There's the 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.080 bush meat trade for the old world porcupines that is 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.440 you know, just you know what that means. Uh, And 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:05.120 they're you know, they're owls, wolverines, pythons. Uh. There's something 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:09.480 called a fisher that looks sort of like a a weasel, bear, 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.880 fox or something. Did you pack that thing up? Yeah, 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.920 I think it's related to otters and weasels. Okay, but 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:18.960 it had a sort of a bear face. It was interesting. 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.480 But apparently stink too. Well. They stink in more ways 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.840 than one because they learned to flip these porcupines over 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.440 where they have that soft belly meat and no quills 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.600 as a way to attack them, which really makes me mad. Yeah, 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.720 I don't. I don't like fishers for that reason either. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.600 I've never heard of them until recently, until we started 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.560 researching this, and I had neither. I don't like them. 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.760 I just don't like them. Eat something else, Yeah, leave 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.880 the porcupines alone, because they're actually pretty nice. Yeah, and 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:50.960 they don't eat what do they eat? They eat vegetables 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:55.160 and fruits and berries and nuts and tubers and roots. Yeah, 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:59.640 so um, they eat all those things. They'll also eat 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.440 crow ops, which is um. Porcupines are considered a nuisance, 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.720 especially if you're a farmer or even a gardener in 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.640 the suburbs, because they will eat your root vegetables. They 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:15.200 will eat corn um love corn apparently um. But they'll 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.360 also They have another thing too, where they need sodium 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.760 in their diet. They actually need they need a pretty 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.000 um even ratio of one to one of potassium to 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.440 sodium for their electrical conductivity in their body to work. 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.640 But they don't get much sodium in their diet. Um 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.160 Plants have lots of potassium, not much sodium, so they 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.320 have to go find it elsewhere. And it turns out 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.800 we humans have a lot of stuff that has sodium 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.160 in it. Apparently plywood glue contains a lot of sodium, 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.440 so they love eating wood structures we build out of plywood. 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.760 Um the salt that we put on the roads gets 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:55.680 kicked up on the underside of our car, So you 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.680 might find a porcupine chewing on the tie ears or 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.720 the hoses or belts or wires under your car. Yeah, 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.480 well that they would even because the humans sweat so 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.800 much salt when they're working that they'll go Like if 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:16.400 you have some some wooden pruners in your shed, they'll 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.199 go in there and they'll start eating the handle of 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.080 your pruners because it just has a residual human salt 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.560 left over on it. Right, you just walk in, You're like, 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.800 are you nuts? What is wrong with you, you porcupine 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.040 for those fellas, Yeah, well they'll find anywhere they can 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.440 find a natural salt, like they'll definitely eat that too. 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.040 But yes, anything that has human sweat on, even trace 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.120 amounts of human sweat, they'll go bonkers, like they eat 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:43.560 oars um, paddles, that kind of stuff. So but yes, 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:49.119 typically they eat um leaves, stems, they eat shoots and 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.440 leaves um. They also, though, and this is another reason 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.080 why they're considered a nuisance, they eat the bark off 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.080 the tree, so they're considered generalists. They'll eat just about 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.160 any kind of veget tatian um, which is actually they're 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.760 also super adaptable, which is why you'll find porcupines almost 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:10.320 anywhere there's vegetation um. But they they'll that's what they eat, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.800 you know, spring, summer, fall, and then in winter. They 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.680 don't hibernate, which actually makes them kind of unusual as well. 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.240 But they they go from being um generalists to what's 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:27.640 known as um faculative specialists, meaning their diet becomes very 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.919 limited to just one or two types of trees, and 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.359 not just one or two types of trees. During the winter, 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.000 they may just feed on the inner bark of one tree, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.199 and that can be problematic because the inner bark is 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.159 where nutrients and water moves from the roots to the 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.959 rest of the tree. And if that porcupine eats all 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.000 the way around it, what's called girdling a tree, it 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.520 can kill or seriously damage that tree. Yeah. So if 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.200 I mean, if you have a problem if you live 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:57.960 in the woods and stuff, and you see a tree, 0:18:58.000 --> 0:18:59.760 it could be a beaver. But either way, you kind 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.320 of hand all the same. You can wrap like chicken 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.400 wire around it around the bottom, or some sort of 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.960 um aluminum or something cheating to keep the the beaver 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.960 and or porcupine from non on that thing. Yeah, and 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.080 I would guess you'd want to wear work gloves because 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.720 the salt from your hands is just gonna attract into 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:23.120 that chicken wire. Uh. Yeah, they eat. They're nocturnal, so 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.560 they're mainly doing this stuff at night. They're patrolling around, 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.680 they're defending their areas that they feed. I saw both. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.080 I saw that their territorial I saw that they're also 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:37.080 not territorial. Yeah, it probably depends with you know, so 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.680 many different species because they will travel outside their home 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:43.760 range if they want to get a mate um or 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.840 if they need that salt. They're usually uh, they're fairly 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.239 solo flyers, although um, sometimes you'll see a couple of them. 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.479 Uh they may be made it, they may be siblings. Um. 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.600 I don't think we mentioned that. The Old World. Uh, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.360 porcupines are actually a good swimmers, both of them are 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.640 for from what I understand. Oh really, m m okay. Yeah, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.960 and New World will actually go swim out to gather 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.120 aquatic plants. They swim more than the Old World does. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:15.440 But they just swim to collect plants and then they 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.199 bring it back to the shore to eat. Yeah. And 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.560 they're they're living in they don't they'll like sleep in 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.679 trees sometimes the climbers will. But uh, it seems like 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.040 they make use of other animals dens when they're not 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.160 around and they have left, Like they'll go to an 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.160 art vark den that has been abandoned or a hole 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.439 and they will change it around, maybe knocked down some walls, 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:42.400 open up that floor plan. So island in the kitchen, Yeah, 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.520 of course, gotta have the big island and then you know, 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.360 they they'll just adapt it to their needs because obviously 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.199 they're a little puffier than the ard vark. Yeah. And 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:55.920 in doing so, Chuck, A question that I kept running 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.480 up against was what role did porcupines play in the ecosystem? 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:01.760 And they think that one of the big roles they 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:06.160 played by basically disturbing stuff. They disturbed the soil when 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.360 they're when they're digging and burrowing and everything. Interesting. They 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.640 they found that they the through that they propagate way 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.000 more seeds than than would otherwise be propagated if they 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:21.000 weren't around. So forests are much more diverse with them 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.760 in it than without them because of all of their 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.040 scratching and moving and all that stuff. Yeah, and it 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.640 seems like for rodents they live a long time. They 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.200 can live and they I mean I sort of saw 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:38.320 a wild range anywhere from three to five years in 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.600 the wild to like ten years in the wild. I 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:43.680 saw one that lived to be eighteen. I saw the 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:47.320 record was five, which I think was second only two 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.320 a beaver as far as the rodent record. I think 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.720 there was a twenty eight year old beaver once I 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.000 saw one in Brazil was can live up to twenty 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:01.800 seven years in captivity. Yeah, so that's I mean, that's 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.200 long lived. But yeah, I saw three to five years too. 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:08.000 I guess it just depends on the species, you know. Yeah, 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.400 And the other thing about their feeding habits is they 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:16.320 eat seasonally, right, they're little hipsters. They eat seasonally and locally, 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:20.800 So depending on what's there, they will I think in 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.000 the winter they'll eat more evergreen needles and the like, 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:25.800 sort of the inner bark of the trees and stuff 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.040 like that. And then you know, when those sweet berries 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:31.840 come around or when that corn crop is coming in, 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:37.840 just look out. Then they turned back into generalists. That's right. So, um, 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.720 I feel like we cannot go any further, can't dance 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:49.000 around the fact that porcupines copulate um, and when they 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:54.000 do copulate, they produce offspring, and we should talk about that. Yeah, 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.280 should we break or should we do this and then break? 0:22:57.640 --> 0:22:59.240 I feel like we're gonna need to take a break 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:04.919 after this. Okay. So porcupines have stabby quills. That's that 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:10.000 point backwards, that's right. And if you know how a 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.399 rodent in a mammal like this would have sex, it 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:19.520 is from something a male approaching the female from the rear. Yeah, 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.560