Watch The Sighting:
Donovan Piketh was on safari in Kruger National Park when his group encountered a leopard and decided to pursue it!
A Spotted Stalker Meets Spiny Opponents
Donovan recounted that in the midst of pursuing the leopard, one of his friends pointed out two porcupines approaching the leopard. Excited by his first-ever porcupine sighting, Donovan quickly took out his camera to capture some footage.
“It was a mixture of over excitement and panic as I was trying to get the camera onto video mode and focus on what was going on.” Little did he know that the encounter was going to become a lot more exciting…
Irresistible Temptation Turns into Regret
All of a sudden, the leopard spotted the porcupines and immediately sank low to the ground, preparing to stalk its prey. Tension filled the air as everyone prepared for a dramatic hunt to follow.
Finally, after waiting for the porcupines to get in front of it, the leopard pounced, and chaos ensued. It began to chase the first porcupine, but with a fast flare of its quills, the leopard was seemingly deterred.
The leopard paused for a moment, then, after its brief hesitation, quickly redirected its efforts towards the second porcupine. It pounced on the porcupine full force, but its attack only lasted a few seconds.
When sharp quills met soft paws, what began as a confident attack rapidly turned into a painful miscalculation. The leopard was immediately pierced by many quills all over its paws, face, and chest.
A Painful Lesson
Because it was so shocked and distracted by the pain, the porcupine had enough time to run away. Both porcupines escaped, completely unscathed, while the leopard was left pulling dozens of quills out of its paws and chest for the next several minutes.
Frustrated, the leopard limped away into the bushes, and Donovan couldn’t believe the exciting encounter he had just witnessed! Not only did he see porcupines for the first time, but he was able to observe their quills in action!
This sighting teaches us that in the wild, even the fiercest predators aren’t immune to poor decisions. Sometimes, it’s not the strongest, but the most well-defended that walks away victorious.
Spiny Defences
Porcupines may look slow and harmless, but when it comes to self-defence, they are impressively well-equipped. They have up to 30,000 quills covering their body that can loosely detach upon making contact with a predator.
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Additionally, many of the quills, especially the ones on their backs and tails, have tiny barbs which cause them to dig deeper into the flesh of any animal that is unlucky to be pierced. This makes the removal of the quills even more painful and challenging while also increasing the risk of infection if they are not dislodged quickly.
Finally, porcupines have tough skin and a high pain tolerance to help them survive and keep fighting. Porcupines may not be the biggest or fastest animals in the bush, but their arsenal of natural defences makes them a nightmare for even the most powerful predators in the wild.