WEBVTT - Selects: Porcupines: Little Stabby Cutie Pies 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.800 It was a dark and stormy night just like this one. 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:10.560 Exactly four years ago today minus four days that we 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:20.360 released the porcupine episode. Oh sorry, Halloween's almost upon us, 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:22.919 and I guess the spirit of the season got in me. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.880 At any rate. Here's our porcupine episode. We're proud of 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.400 all of our animal episodes, but this one in particular 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.800 really takes the cake. So enjoy it with some cake. 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:40.920 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.879 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.320 there's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there, and this is 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:54.800 stuff you should know about porcupines, which this is a 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:56.640 great idea. Chuck, good job. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:03.320 You know, the pine when you take away all those quills, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:05.800 is just a cute little guinea pig. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.000 Basically a giant one. 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:09.880 Yeah, a cute big guinea pig. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.600 Speaking of cute porcupines, Dude, do you remember Teddy Bear 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.800 the porcupine kind of went a little viral a few 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:23.760 years ago. No, you have to watch Teddy Bear the Porcupine, 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:29.959 specifically Teddy Bear the Porcupine doesn't like to share on YouTube, 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.160 and it is this porcupine eating corn on the cob 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.800 and making all these sounds like cousin it and it 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:38.520 is one of the cutest things I've ever seen in 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:39.600 my entire life. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:46.679 Yeah, we want to shout out Live Science, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.200 the San Diego Zoo, and a couple of other websites 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.520 that I coupled together this wonderful bit on one of 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.120 our wonderful animal friends in the world. We'd love to 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.760 do these shows. It just made me think, have you 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:02.600 seen the octopus documentary thing yet? 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.920 No? I haven't. I've been like kind of popping up 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.480 in my in my periphery, but I don't really know 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.240 what it is. Is it just about OCTOPI. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.560 Well, it's it's called My Octopus Teacher. I haven't seen 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.240 it yet, but I just know that the dealer, this 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.079 guy kind of gets to know one octopus and that's right. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.800 You know, A nice story ensues, is all I know. 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:25.880 That's neat. We'll have to watch that. 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.080 Yeah, I can't. I can't wait. But and I mentioned 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.360 that because you know, we've long said that the octopus 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.679 is our favorite animal. But I feel like almost every 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.440 time we've done one on an animal, it's on something 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.720 that we love, and boy do I love the quill pig. 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.680 I do too. Yeah, apparently that's what the their Latin 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:46.040 name means, quill pig. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:46.680 I love that. 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:51.440 That's great, That is fantastic. And it turns out, Chuck, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:56.079 that there are basically two groups that porcupines get lumped into. 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.880 There's a bunch of different GENI yeah, that's right, and speace. 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.960 But they basically fall under two categories. It's Old World, 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.720 which is Europe, Africa, Asia, and the New World, which 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:13.639 is North, South, and Central America. And if you saw 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.440 a you know, porcupine in South America and you saw 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:22.520 one in you know, the Himalayas, you probably would be like, 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.440 that's porcupine. That's porcupine too. They're not radically different like 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.040 some Old World and New World's animals are. 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.240 Yeah. But something I saw that was interesting was that 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:38.080 they evolved separately what one of those what is it 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.840 called co evolutions or whatever. 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.200 No, I didn't see that. That's that is crazy. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.960 I saw that, and I only saw it in one place, so. 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.440 I think that might have been a personal hypothesis of 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.440 somebody who got them, maybe website. 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.600 I saw it somewhere though, and then that the two 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.160 actually the Old World in the New World have less 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.520 in common then they do individually with like some other 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:04.920 rodents in their area. 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.000 Yeah, so I'm actually not surprised to hear that. But 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.440 the one thing that they do have in common across 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.000 the board is that they have quills, and that they 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.000 use their quills defensively. Now what their quills look like, 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.920 how they use their quills. There's a lot of other 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.599 distinctions and differences between Old World and New World, but 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.560 they all have quills. They're all porcupines. That seems to 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.280 be the thing that binds them. It's the tie that 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:32.359 binds that family. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.680 Yeah, And it's just it's easy to take the porcupine 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.440 for granted, I think, and just say, yeah, the little 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.800 animal with all those quills. But when you take a 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.599 step back and look at it and think about the 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:49.599 evolution of the porcupine that, like I said, it sort 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.520 of would be a very large, sort of cute, little 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.159 fluffy guinea pig, but it probably got eaten a lot. 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.479 And then you know, they said nuts to this nature 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.479 steps in It is like, all right, how about this. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:08.120 What if we were just animal pincushions such that if 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:12.200 you came anywhere near us, you would be stabbed repeatedly 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.680 if you tried to eat us, Like, It's one of 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.040 the most amazing evolutionary adaptations I've ever seen. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.360 Yeah, And I mean they can really use those things too. 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.160 There's a long standing myth that they can shoot them, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.080 which is not true, but apparently even Aristotle fell for 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.920 that one, and what a dummy. But they can use 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.640 them in some pretty interesting ways. And you hit the 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.360 nail on the head when you said, you know, step 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.440 back if you see a porcupine. That is good advice. 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.479 You should probably step back because depending on the species 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:46.680 or whether it's an Old world or New world, those 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.360 quills can mess you up pretty good. 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:53.359 Yeah. But also you know, get nearby and take a look, 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.400 like they're not going to come after you. The porcupine 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:58.840 is a very kind hearted animal. Yeah, and those are 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.440 one hundred percent for defense. A porcupine is never going 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:05.839 to charge you, and you know, leap at your belly 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:10.400 to put quills all in your stomach. So take a 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.440 little look, admire it for what it is. I think, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.880 you know, to talk about porcupines, a lot of this 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:20.000 is talking about the old world versus the rush version. 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:26.440 Yeah. So the big differences that I saw and there's 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.640 lots of differences between different species within each of these groups, 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.240 but the Old World versus New World have some big 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.240 differences between them, and one of them is that Old 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.640 World are typically terrestrial porcupines. They spend most of their 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.719 lives on the ground. They live in burrows or caves 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.480 or rock dens, and New World porcupines they live on 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.559 the ground too, they live in burrows, but they're also 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:55.240 very capable of climbing trees, and they'll spend a significant 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.880 amount of time and sometimes nests in trees. And there 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.000 are some species that spend virtually their whole lies in trees, 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:02.320 almost like sloths. 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:07.840 Yeah, quill wise, the New World porcupines quills are going 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.800 to be shorter and smaller in general. I think they're 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:15.440 about four to ten four inches ten centimeters. The Old 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.680 World dudes and ladies they can get very long. They 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.840 can have quills up to twenty inches long. They can 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:27.040 be marked with black and white bands. And what they 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.360 can do is these Old World guys can puff them 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:34.080 up so they stand up and are more intimidating and look. Also, 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.200 I mean it's weird because it's like multifold, like four 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.000 or five different things they do. By doing this, they 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:44.840 look larger, so that's always something that vulnerable animals try 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.880 to do in the wild. They look like a skunk 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.200 a little bit because of the black and white marking 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:50.840 down their back. 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:55.480 They actually have a defensive musk kind of like a skunk, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:56.920 which is not nearly as bad. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:59.160 Yeah, so they try to imitate a skunk a little bit. 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:04.360 They look bigger, They rattle, They can shake those things 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.480 and rattle them, which is another great adaptation to say 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:09.160 like get away from me, don't try and eat me. 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.720 And supposedly that works pretty well too. 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.920 Yeah, totally. And then if all else fails, they are stabby. 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:21.000 They are stabby. So sometimes the old world ones will 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.960 actually charge backwards toward a predator if they're feeling like 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.920 they want to stand their ground, and that's usually when 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.200 they're caught out in the open. If they have a 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.400 place to hide, they'll stick their head in that place 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.040 to hide and then puff out their quills and make 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.240 themselves hard to get at. But if they're out in 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.080 the open, they may decide that they're going to fight 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.440 off this predator and they'll charge backward. And one other 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.160 adaptation I saw, which I thought was awesome. They'll have 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.679 the predator chase it, and then they'll stop all of 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:52.600 a sudden, and the predator will run into them in 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.400 their quills for real. 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.559 And then you hear the sound effect. 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.640 Yeah, exactly, and then it's too late. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.280 Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because those quills, even though 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.160 they puff them out, they are pointed generally in the 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.679 reverse direction, right, which you know, which is why they 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.040 have to back up into something to quill them or 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:17.200 like you said, bury them, just throwing that parking break 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.720 real quick, and all of a sudden, that fox has 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:21.760 got a face full of quill, right. 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.840 So that Old World contains a couple of species that 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:30.520 are called crested porcupines, and they basically look like if 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.480 the quills were like an umbrella. It opens at the 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.280 back of their head, yeah, and just kind of sticks 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:38.560 out like that, and like you said, it makes them 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.079 look a lot bigger. They're a lot more dangerous. The 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.000 big difference with quills between the Old World and the 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.040 New World, in addition to being shorter, is Old World 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:52.880 porcupines are covered in quills. That's all they have. They're 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.600 like they have like I don't know if we said 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.480 or not, but quills are just modified hair. They're made 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.079 a carratin. They're just like hair. They're just way stabbier 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:02.760 than hair that you and I have. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.480 Well, it's like hair Mead's fingernails basically. 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.480 Yeah, that's a great way to put it. And Old 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.360 World porcupines, that's all they have are quills. New World 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.400 porcupines have quills that are also mixed in with fur 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.240 like an undercoat, longer hairs, and their quills kind of 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.320 stand up and are used for defense. That's not just 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.719 it's not all that they have. And the other thing 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.360 about their quills is that they have little barbs, and 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:35.440 New World porcupines barbs make their New World quills way 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.520 more dangerous than Old World quills. 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.760 Yeah, it's like little fish hook basically, and it'll instead 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:42.920 of just poking right into you, it'll actually snag in 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.640 your flesh and makes it, like you said, way way 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.760 tougher to get out, a much harder time removing a 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.240 New World quill than an Old World quill. Right, But 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:59.679 those New World guys are because their quills start further back. 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.640 You get the feeling if you just and I wouldn't 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.280 recommend this, but if you just go very gently and 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.440 just say, hey, little guy, no do that. I just 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:11.120 I just want to give you a stretch under the 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.839 under the chin, and I think you might enjoy it. 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:18.320 And I'm gonna move very slowly. Just don't turn around, 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:20.800 and you'll you'll have a really good time. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.200 I'd like to include a disclaimer here, don't do it. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.079 You guys should not listen to Chuck right now. He's 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.040 doling out some really terrible advice. 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.000 Yeah, it's just because those quills start further back. They 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.240 got that cute little head and face, and it just 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:35.560 makes you want to give him a scritch. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.480 Yeah, no, totally. Like if you watch Teddy Teddy Bear 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.360 videos Teddy Bear the Porcupine, you will want to go 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.520 get one as a pet. There's another one I saw 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:50.080 called Diva, and she's a baby porcupine. She's adorable. Yeah, 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:51.760 you totally want to do that, and I'm sure there 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.400 are ways to handle them. But I also saw, you know, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.079 one of those zoo guys on a late night talk 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.920 show and he had I think an African crested porcupine 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.319 on his lap and that thing was not at all 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.720 worried or scared or in any sort of defense mode. 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.120 And that dude was in pain just letting this thing 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.000 sit on his lap because I don't know. You said, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:13.920 you know, they look like guinea pigs, and I said, 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.840 overgrown guinea pigs. Some of these things can get really big. 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.040 There's a cape porcupine. I think it's the biggest one. 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:24.040 They get up to like sixty five pounds. Sixty five pounds, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.520 it's like a large dog. Yeah, and with quills though, uh, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.520 with the quills puffed up, No, like they're sixty five 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.079 pounds year round. And then but imagine a sixty five 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.559 pound dog with those quills. That's dangerous. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:40.800 Yeah, what I meant. I know they don't actually weigh 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.960 more when they puff up, but they can. When they 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.000 puff those quills out, they can look two to three 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.600 times their size. So right, yeah, yeah, I imagine that 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.760 thing looks enormous. And actually I don't do this much, 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.160 but I'm watching that thing eat that corn on the 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:54.880 cop right now. 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:56.239 Isn't that adorable? 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.000 Yeah? I have to have the sound down, so I'm 0:12:58.000 --> 0:12:59.000 gonna go back and watch it. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.120 You have to hear this, like the sound does it? 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.280 But even without the sound, he's just awfully cute. Huh. 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.640 Yeah, it kind of They kind of look like Beaver's 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:11.680 a little bit too, and they are related as fellow rodents. Here. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.320 I think we should take a break. I'm getting kind 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:17.680 of worked up here, and we'll come back and talk 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.280 more about these cute little stabby suckers right after this. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:43.280 Okay, Charles, we're back, and we've been talking mostly about quills. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.000 Yeah, so one more thing about quills, and there's gonna 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.920 be more than one more thing about quills, let's be honest. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:51.800 But we said they couldn't shoot him. What they can do? 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.880 These things do fall out just like hair, and they 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:59.040 grow just like fingernails and will eventually fall so when 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.719 they shake, they if they have loose quills, they can 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:06.560 fly off. But they're still not like shooting, like Aristotle said, 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:08.120 like deadly needle darts. 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.319 No, but they can be problematic, like these things can 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:16.320 puncture the sidewalls of tires. I was reading the blog 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.840 of some tire company ka L Tires, I think up 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.440 in the Yukon, and they said that it's actually it 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.040 can be a problem if you run over one, like 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.120 on some roads. Yeah that if you're out in the 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.120 middle of nowhere and you run over a porcupine quill 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.360 you're you're probably going to get a flat that's how 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:34.400 tough those things are. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:36.120 Well, that's sad. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.720 What for your tire? No for the afternoon? Well, no, 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.480 you're not running over Are you still watching Teddy Bear videos? 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.720 No? I thought you said if you run over a porcupine, 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.880 it can porcupine quill? Oh well, I mean what is it? 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:51.520 Just a loose quill on the road. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:53.960 Yeah, exactly, That's what I'm saying. Like, just a loose 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:55.600 quill laying on the road. If you run over it 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:57.680 goes into your sidewall, You're probably going to get a 0:14:57.680 --> 0:14:59.280 flat tire. That's how tough those things are. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.040 Okay, I thought you. And if you actually run over 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.520 a porcupine and you have like a bunch of quills, that. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.800 Would probably do it too, especially if the porcupine was 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.320 in a defensive procedure. But the porcupine doesn't have to 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.720 die in this case for you to give a flat tire. 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.200 So regardless of that sadness they there is sadness in that, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:22.320 despite this great adaptation and this great defense mechanism, they 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:27.120 still can be hunted. Lions can still hunt them human people. 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.000 There's the bush meat trade for the Old World porcupines 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.800 that is, you know, just you know what that means, 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:38.120 and they're you know, there are owls, wolverines, pythons. There's 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:42.720 something called a fissure that looks sort of like a weasel, bear, 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:45.440 fox or something. Did you look that thing up? 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.280 Yeah, I think it's related to otters and weasels. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.560 Okay, but it had a little sort of a bear face. 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:52.200 It was interesting. 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:54.120 But apparently stink too. 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.280 Well. They stink in more ways than one because they 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.360 learned to flip these porcupines over where they had that 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.720 soft belly meat and no quills as a way to 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:05.360 attack them, which really makes me mad. 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.000 Yeah, I don't. I don't like fishes for that reason either. 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.840 I'd never heard of them until recently, until we started 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.000 researching this, I had neither. I don't like them. No, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.000 I just don't like them. Eat something else, Yeah, leave 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.640 the porcupines alone, because they're actually pretty nice. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.480 Yeah, and they don't eat what do they eat? They 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:27.080 eat vegetables and fruits and berries and nuts and tubers 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:27.600 and roots. 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:33.520 Yeah, so they eat all those things. They'll also eat crops, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.520 which is Porcupines are considered a nuisance, especially if you're 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.400 a farmer or even a gardener in the suburbs, because 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.800 they will eat your root vegetables. They will eat corn, 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:50.440 love corn, apparently. But they'll also they have another thing too, 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:55.000 where they need sodium in their diet. They acted they 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.480 need a pretty even ratio of one to one of 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:03.120 potassium to sodium for their electrical conductivity in their body 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.199 to work. But they don't give much sodium in their diet. 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.399 Plants have lots of potassium, not much sodium, so they 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.560 have to go find it elsewhere. And it turns out 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.080 we humans have a lot of stuff that has sodium 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.440 in it. Apparently plywood glue contains a lot of sodium, 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.679 so they love eating wood. Structures we build out of plywood. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.280 The salt that we put on the roads gets kicked 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.200 up on the underside of our car, so you might 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:34.680 find a porcupine chewing on the tires or the hoses 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.280 or belts or wires under your car. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.160 Yeah, what else that they would even because the humans 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.840 sweat so much salt when they're working that they'll go Like, 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:49.640 if you have some wooden pruners in your shed, they'll 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:51.480 go in there and they'll start eating the handle of 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.640 your pruners because it just has residual human salt left 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:55.160 over on it. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.760 Right, you just walk in, You're like, are you nuts? 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:59.200 What is wrong with you? You? 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.840 Porcupine just set up a salt like for those fellas. 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.320 Yeah, well they'll find anywhere they can find a natural salt, like, 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:07.920 they'll definitely eat that too. But yes, anything that has 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.560 human sweat on, even trace amounts of human sweat, they'll 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:15.480 go bonkers. Like they eat oars, paddles, that kind of stuff. 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:22.320 But yes, typically they eat leaves, stems, they eat shoots 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.640 and leaves. They also, though, and this is another reason 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.320 why they're considered a nuisance, they eat the bark off 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.040 of the tree. So they're considered generalists. They'll eat just 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.400 about any kind of vegetation, which is actually and they're 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.960 also super adaptable, which is why you'll find porcupines almost 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:44.080 anywhere there's vegetation. But they'll that's what they eat, you know, 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.960 in spring, summer, fall, and then in winter. They don't hibernate, 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.600 which actually makes them kind of unusual as well. But 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:58.359 they go from being generalists to what's known as faculative specialists, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.600 meaning their diet becomes very limited to just one or 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:04.959 two types of trees. And not just one or two 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.919 types of trees. During the winter, they may just feed 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.400 on the inner bark of one tree, and that can 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.320 be problematic because the inner bark is where nutrients and 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.160 water moves from the roots to the rest of the tree. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.960 And if that porcupine eats all the way around it, 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:24.240 what's called girdling a tree, it can kill or seriously 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:25.560 damage that tree. 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:27.960 Yeah. So I I mean, if you have a problem, 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.560 if you live in the woods and stuff and you 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:32.760 see a tree, it could be a beaver, but either way, 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.040 you kind of handle it the same. You can wrap 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.200 like chicken wire around it around the bottom, or some 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:43.200 sort of aluminum or something sheeting to keep the beaver 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:45.320 and or porcupine from non on that thing. 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:47.600 Yeah, and I would guess you'd want to wear work 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.640 gloves because the salt from the sweat and your hands 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.920 is just going to attract them to that chicken wire. 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:58.000 Yeah, they eat. They're nocturnal, so they're mainly doing this 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.920 stuff at night. They're patrolling around, they're defending their areas 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:02.600 that they feed. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.760 I saw both. I saw that they're territorial. I saw 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:07.400 that they're also not territorial. 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.400 Yeah, it probably depends with you know, so many different species, 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.199 because they will travel outside their home range if they 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:18.040 want to get a mate or if they need that salt. 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:24.840 They're usually they're fairly solo flyers, although sometimes you'll see 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.159 a couple of them. They may be mated, they may 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.359 be siblings. I don't think we mentioned that the Old 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:34.440 World porcupines are actually really good swimmers. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.000 Both of them are, from what I understand. 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.240 Oh really m hmm, okay. 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.720 Yeah, and New World will actually go swim out to 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.359 gather aquatic plants. They swim more than the Old World does. 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:48.679 But they just swim to collect plants and then they 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:49.960 bring it back to the shore to eat. 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.320 Yeah, and they're they're living in they don't. They'll like 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.840 sleep in trees sometimes the climbers will, but it seems 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.160 like they make use of other animals dens when they're 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.159 not around and they have left, Like they'll go to 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.440 an ardvark den that has been abandoned or a hole 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:11.679 and they will change it around, maybe knock down some walls, 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.879 open up that floor plan. Yeah, so to island in 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.480 the kitchen, Yeah, of course, gotta have the big island. Sure, 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.720 And then you know they'll just adapt it to their 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:25.560 needs because obviously they're a little puffier than the ardvark. 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.560 Yeah, and in doing so, Chuck, a question that I 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.720 kept running up against was what role did porcupines play 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:34.359 in the ecosystem? And they think that one of the 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.680 big roles they play is by basically disturbing stuff. They 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.720 disturb the soil when they're digging and burrowing and everything 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.680 so interesting. And they found that they the through that 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:50.000 they propagate way more seeds than would otherwise be propagated 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.240 if they weren't around. So forests are much more diverse 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.480 with them in it than without them because of all 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.280 of their scratching and moving and all that stuff. 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.439 Yeah, and it seems like for rodents they live a 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.800 long time. They can live in the wild. I mean, 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:09.520