A Porcupine Parable

I had a very cute porcupine experience yesterday that I just have to share with you guys. Rachel and I were driving back from a park blood-drive where we stood around doing nothing for 4 hours. Along the one-way loop road back to the Schoodic section of the park, we saw in the distance the small, dark, waddling figure of Little Porcupine crossing the road. I was driving and slowed down until we were stopped about 5m away from him. The little guy had paused in the middle of the road, sniffing bemusedly in our direction. As with all wild creatures I meet and in whom I want to instill a sense of fear associated with roads and humans, I honked at him. He leaped into the air the equivalent of a human jumping a meter, then hurried as fast as his waddling gait could carry him to the side of the road and disappeared into the spruce forest. So cute, I couldn't stop laughing.

Did you know...Porcupines do not see very well past a few meters. But they use their acute senses of smell and hearing to identify approaching animals. -Excerpt from a Porcupine Fact Sheet we're developing.