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Martin Sloan, age 14, of Crown Point, N.M., for his question:

HOW DOES A PORCUPINE GET HIS QUILLS?

In the world of nature, each animal species is born with talents to make a living and to defend himself from his foes. The porcupine is a born tree climber with tough teeth for chewing his favorite foods. His natural defense is a pincushion coat of deadly prickles. Since his is classified among the furry mammals, this seems rather odd.

Our native porcupine is at home in the northern and central forests of junipers, poplars and conifers. It is said that the peaceable fellow never attacks another animal. However, his 30,000 or so spiky quills are deadly weapons of defense. The parents mate in the fall, and junior is born seven months later. Compared with the size of his mother he is perhaps the biggest baby in the world. He is fully alert and fully clothed  even with his quota of prickles.

If those baby prickles were hard and sharp, the childbirth might be dangerous to the poor mother.  However, they are quite soft, somewhat like pliable plastic. For the first 10 days of his life, the 1 pound 12 inch porcupine is defenseless. Then his quills become hard, and he is well equipped to take care of himself and almost ready to go off on his own.

Usually he prefers to live a rather solitary life, dining on tree bark and greenery. Sometimes he raids a cornfield, and always he hungers for traces of salt. When possible he uses his rodent teeth to chew ax handles and other objects touched by sweaty, salty human hands.

He does most of his dining at dusk and dawn. Part of the day usually is spent dozing in his den, in the ground or a hollow tree. Come fall the young porcupine may be 3 feet long, plus a 12 inch prickly tail and a weight of perhaps 15 pounds. He does not hibernate though during stormy weather, but he stays in his den which he may share with a few relatives.

The 2  or 3 inch quills are superhard and highly polished. Both ends are tapered, and their bases are lightly attached to the_skin. The tips bear microscopic barbs. When jabbed into an attacking enemy, these barbs explode backward.  The quills cannot be extracted without tearing the flesh, and often the defeated foe goes away to die from his porcupine wounds.

 

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