Hennie Bekker, a 36-year-old director at Private Kruger Safaris, captured this sighting on camera while out on a night drive in Kruger National Park. He told Latest Sightings they “headed out in a southeasterly direction from Lower Sabie”.
That night started quietly. Hennie described them as seeing “only general game”, but then they “suddenly heard a rattling sound” which drew their attention.
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When Hennie and his group looked for the source of the sound, they soon “noticed seven young lions trying to corner a porcupine.” The lone rodent was in a sticky situation.
African porcupines only weigh between 10 to 20 kilos, but each one is armed with 30,000 individual quills. Most of these are in the hind part of the porcupine, the area most vulnerable without them.
Atypical Food Source
Lions will catch and eat porcupines when they can, but the spiky little rodents aren’t their preferred source of food. Mainly because of their small size and strong defenses.
For seven lions to target a porcupine means they must have been hungry and have very few available. The relative size of the rodent shows how little satisfaction it would give one hungry lion, let alone seven.
Maybe the lions were just looking for a nighttime snack, or perhaps they’d had an unsuccessful day hunting. Given their poor performance in this hunt, it’s not impossible that there was larger prey around, but they’d failed to catch it.
Porcupine hunts are risky for lions. A single quill lodged in a paw can leave a lion limping for days, and in areas like the eyes and the face, can cause life-threatening infections.
Tiny Terror
The weapons on a porcupine, their long and sharp quills, are defensive, and they’re one of the reasons why lions usually leave porcupines alone.
The lions had this one outnumbered, as Hennie noted, “the porcupine cleverly kept his back towards them at all times”. The large felines, despite their numbers, lacked the dexterity to attack the porcupine without feeling the sting of its quills.
Porcupines often defend themselves first by rattling their hollow quills, making a warning. If that is not recognized, they charge backwards towards their attackers.
Quite comedically, the mighty lions scattered rapidly every time the little porcupine mounted a charge against them, revealing their fear of the quills.
A Deadly Defense
Porcupine quills are an incredibly potent defense, which they usually keep lowered along their bodies. When porcupines encounter a threat, they can raise their quills, like this one does, making an attack very difficult.
While porcupines can’t launch quills at predators, they detach easily when embedded in an attacker. Once embedded, they have tiny barbs that make them difficult and painful to pull out.
If they’re not pulled out, these barbs help the quills work their way deeper into the flesh of whatever animal is unlucky enough to be stabbed by them, until they can reach vital organs. No wonder the lions kept their distance.
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The Humble Porcupine Against The Mighty Lion
This porcupine knew exactly how to defend itself from the menacing lions, and it made sure they never had an opening to attack where they wouldn’t feel the pain of its quills.
It resembled a very small, spiky and angry bush as it charged repeatedly at the lions, with Hennie describing it as “astounding to see how all these lions were unable to get the upper hand on the porcupine”.
Eventually, “the lions gave up as they realised they were not getting anywhere”, and they left the porcupine. Despite its small size, the single little rodent held its ground against seven mighty lions.
Here’s another sighting of a porcupine successfully dealing with an attacker.
Leopard Thinks Porcupines Are Easy Meals
Ard van de Wetering witnessed a young male leopard trying its luck on a lone African porcupine in the R52, southwest of Shingwedzi in the Kruger National Park.
Experience Matters When Hunting
The leopard crept slowly to the porcupine, showing no signs of experience.
It’s obvious that the leopard being opportunistic, sizing up what looked like an easy meal. After all, porcupines appear slow and sluggish when walking along.
Quilly Situation
The porcupine soon realised that he was being sized up as dinner, so it assumed its usual defensive stance. Facing its rear in the leopard’s direction, rattling its hollow quills.
Whenever the leopard found angles to a less quilly spot, the porcupine swiftly adjusted with tight, defensive turns.
Impenetrable Defenese
The leopard started to get bolder, using its paw to grab gaps in the porcupines hindquarters, which is a very bad idea.
But every time it sneaks to the side, the porcupine starts charging at him, rattling its quills and cutting off any opening. There was simply no safe way in.
Tired And Defeated
Sensing that the leopard was getting frustrated, the porcupine made a run for it. The leopard still followed it, and after a few more failed attempts it realised there was simply no chance.
Experienced predators usually avoid hunting porcupines. The risk of getting stabbed from quills that can lodge deep and cause infection isn’t worth it.