Honey badgers are famous for their fierce aggression, and willingness to fight anything and everything that they see. This one might have bitten off more than it could chew with this porcupine.
Elsemarie van der Walt, who lives with her husband in the Springerbaai Coastal Eco-Estate on the Western Cape, filmed this encounter at her home. Biodiverse fynbos, brimming with wildlife, surround their garden, and after finding several porcupine quills they knew one was in the area.
When they heard strange noises coming from the garden one evening, they not only saw a porcupine, but one which was fighting for its very life against a hungry honey badger.
Impenetrable Defenses
The badger was doing its very best to get close enough to the porcupine to use its sharp teeth and claws, but the porcupine had long pointy quills to defend itself and the badger had to get past those first.
Quick and nimble, the badger was darting left and right, but the porcupine was too cunning to fall for such a trick. The porcupine made sure a wall of defenses were between them at all times, meeting the badger with sharp quills every time it turned.
Too Nimble To Catch
As the badger grew increasingly frustrated by its failed attempts to get to the porcupine, the latter showed its own dodging ability by darting around the badger at every turn.
The porcupine was just as nimble as the badger, but the badger’s weapons didn’t have the range to get past its preys defenses. Although the porcupine was fighting for its life, it still had the upper hand.
Maybe its frantic defense made it seem more wily than it actually was, but this porcupine was foiling the badger’s hunting attempts at every turn, it just needed to keep it up for long enough to escape.
Taking Hits
There was evidence that the porcupine was putting up a good fight, and the badger was starting to take hits. It already had several quills sticking out of its shoulder showing that the porcupine’s quills were working.
Or, at least, they were working by digging into the badger. As a deterrent they were remarkable ineffective, with the badger keeping up the assault even with the quills digging into it.
Even if they didn’t stop it attacking, the badger must remove these quills before they slowly work their way deeper into the muscle. This slow penetration deeper into the body, until they hit something vital, is what makes porcupine quills so dangerous.
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Off Into The Distance
Unfortunately, the fierce battle took both animals out of the range of Elsemarie’s camera and light, meaning the ultimate outcome of the fight remains unknown.
Honey badgers aren’t known for giving up, even after being stabbed multiple times by quills, which would indicate an unlucky outcome for the poor porcupine.
According to Elsemarie, twenty-seven porcupine quills were found near their birdbath the next morning, and they remained the only indication that the struggle for survival had even taken place.