Cotswold Wildlife Park’s first Porcupette twins show off their quills

Cotswold Wildlife Park is celebrating the birth of the first Porcupine twins in the Park’s forty-seven-year history. The as-yet-unnamed and unsexed twins (one pictured left) were born recently to first-time mother Stempu and father Prickle. The newborns are on show in the enclosure they share with a trio of inquisitive Dwarf Mongooses.

The twins are perfect miniature versions of the adults, even born with a full set of quills, which begs the question visitors have been keen to ask keepers - how does the female give birth without injury? After a gestation period of approximately one hundred and twelve days (the longest gestation period of any rodent), the female gives birth to offspring covered in soft, moist and flexible quills, enclosed in a thin placental sac. Immediately after birth, the quills quickly harden in the air and become prickly. The babies, also known as Porcupettes, are born relatively well developed with eyes open and teeth present.

African Crested Porcupines (Hystrix cristata) are the largest of the twenty-five Porcupine species. They are also the third largest rodent in the world, behind the Beaver and Capybara. Their Latin name means “quill pig”. Porcupines possess a spiny defence that is unique among rodents – approximately thirty thousand sharp quills adorn their back. Contrary to popular belief, they cannot fire their quills at enemies, but the slightest touch can lodge dozens of barbed quills into a predator’s body. Quills are modified hairs made of keratin (the same material as human hair, fingernails and the horn of a Rhino). Each quill can boast up to eight hundred barbs. If threatened, Porcupines reverse charge into a predator, stabbing the enemy with its sharp quills. The resulting wound can disable or even kill predators including Lions, Leopards and Hyenas.

Section Head of Primates, Chris Kibbey, commented: “Dad Prickle and mum Stempu were introduced in October 2016 and it wasn’t long until love blossomed and keepers were delighted to recently discover little Porcupettes running around the enclosure. The babies are born about Guinea Pig-sized and although are born with quills, they are soft at birth, making things considerably easier for mum. The twins (pictured right) are doing really well and have already developed their mother’s habit of stamping their feet, indicating their frustration at keepers disturbing them.”

Four-year-old Stempu is notorious for her feet stamping (her name means ‘stamp’ in Swahili) and she protects her first litter with great ferocity. Her pups were recently caught on camera stamping their tiny feet. Three-year-old Prickle (also the collective noun for a group of Porcupines) is far more relaxed and both are proving to be formidable parents.

Additional information:

• This species is found in Italy, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The Romans were credited with introducing this species to Italy, but fossil and subfossil remains suggest it was possibly present in Europe in the Upper Pleistocene (approximately 11,700 years ago). They have been extinct in heavily-settled parts of Uganda since the 1970s.

• Porcupines are formidable opponents – in addition to piercing a predator’s skin with their barbed quills, they hiss, growl, click their teeth, stamp their feet and rattle their spines in warning when threatened. The crest of spines and quills can be erected at will to make the animal look enormous and threatening.

• According to a book titled What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame (written by Mark and Matthew Jacob), when he was thirteen, Ernest Hemingway shot a Porcupine. His father punished him by making him cook and eat it.

• There are several documented cases of snakes eating Porcupines. In Brazil earlier this year, a Boa Constrictor attempted to eat a Porcupine. The snake came off worse when the animal defended itself with its quills and the snake’s body was fatally pierced with spikes visibly protruding through the reptile’s skin. In 2015, Park rangers in South Africa discovered a deceased engorged Python. After closer inspection, they discovered a Porcupine weighing almost 14 kilograms had pierced the snake’s digestive tract, making it a fatal last meal for the Python (which measured 12.8 feet in length).

• African Crested Porcupines feed on a variety of roots, bark, bulbs and fallen fruit.