# Has Anyone Here Touched A Porcupine?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-touched-a-porcupine/526613>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 27, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-touched-a-porcupine/526613 "2010-01-27T02:45:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-touched-a-porcupine/526613/21 "2010-01-31T07:37:23Z")

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> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> The judge won’t let me talk about it.

You have to stay 500 feet from porcupines as well?

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-touched-a-porcupine/526613/22 "2010-01-31T23:23:53Z")

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> [@spoike](#):
>
> I’ve touched them at the zoo. If they’re calm, their quills don’t stick out, so you can feel their fur. It’s extremely soft.

So what’s the order? Skin -\> Fur -\> Quills?

Which leads to the second question, if you pulled out the quills could you make a fur coat out of them?

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**Author:** ![spoike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@spoike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spoike)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-touched-a-porcupine/526613/23 "2010-02-01T02:22:07Z")

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> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> So what’s the order? Skin -\> Fur -\> Quills?
> 
> Which leads to the second question, if you pulled out the quills could you make a fur coat out of them?

For North American porcupines, the order is skin, woolly undercoat, and then long guard hairs/fur and quills mixed together. On a relaxed porcupine, the quills aren’t all that visible, except for on the tail. Mostly you can just see the dark brown undercoat and the long golden guard hairs, as in [this photo](http://www.zooniversity.org/popsingle/porcupine.php?KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=320&width=570).

An adult porcupine can have 30,000 quills. I imagine it wouldn’t be fun to pull them out, and it would leave an awful lot of holes in the pelt, so I doubt a fur coat would be very practical. I can’t say for sure. Also, porcupines smell terrible, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the fur coat would also smell terrible. That being said, some native peoples traditionally ate porcupine meat, so perhaps there’s a way to wash the odour away. Or, maybe they were just really, really hungry.

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**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-here-touched-a-porcupine/526613/24 "2010-02-01T02:48:53Z")

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> [@valleyofthedolls](#):
>
> After seeing these pictures, I think I’d give as wide and as respectful a berth as possible.
> 
> [Dog vs. Porcupine | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/porcupinedog.asp)

Holy shit!:eek:

Never touched a porcupine, but have touched a hedgehog several times. Their quills are pretty sharp too.

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