The Porcupine

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“ Porcupines are endowed with stiff hollow hairs, similar to the quill of a birds feather. These quills are loosely attached to a sheet of voluntary muscles beneath the skin. Quills are solid at the base and tip. The tips of a porcupine's 30,000 quills are sharp, possessing microscopic barbs. Any animal, such as a domestic dog or wild predator ignorant enough to harass these slow moving rodents will come away from their encounter with a face full of irritating even fatal quills. ”

An excerpt from Bill Kitzmiller's Kachemak Wilderness Notes.