North American Porcupine Quills - Erethizon dorsatum

**I have a fairly large collection of natural curiosities and decided to share some on JungleDragon. I have been collecting bits of nature for years and also have many friends who have shared things with me. Everything in my collection was ethically collected/harvested/sourced and is cruelty-free.

Porcupine are large rodents. Their common name basically means "thorn pig". They are famous for their quills. An adult porcupine has 30,000 quills! The quills are modified hairs that form sharp, barbed, hollow spines. They are used for defense and insulation during winter. Porcupines can't throw their quills; rather, they contract the muscles near the skin, which causes the quills to stand out from their bodies. When the quills are in this position, they become easier to detach from the body, especially when a porcupine swings its tail toward a predator.

Porcupines have a very strong, horrible smell -- which is carried on these quills, unfortunately. My cats went crazy when I removed the quills from the vial that I keep them in. The smell was intense.

One more fun fact: Porcupines have antibiotics in their skin. These antibiotics prevent infection if a porcupine falls out of a tree and is stuck with its own quills upon hitting the ground.