AAAAAAGH! The evidence was unavoidable: a monstrous hole tunnelled underneath one garden fence to enter by, another one hidden behind a huge apple tree to exit and half eaten, fallen apples and chewed on radishes strewn here and there after being pulled, straight up, out of the ground. Porcupine invasion!

The largest member of the rodent family to be found in this part of the world, crested porcupines or hystrix indica to give them their scientific name, are found from one end of the country to the other and with an average weight of 11.5 kg — a massive 15 kg has been recorded — they are one very big rodent indeed!

Porcupines are, as many people are aware, covered in a thick coat of lethally pointed quills — these quills, dipped in ink, were sometimes used as pens in olden times — but, unlike common belief, porcupines cannot ‘fire’ quills at enemies when in danger of being attacked. What they do instead, is to stand their quills erect, these quills are mostly very strong, especially the shorter ones in its tail, and ram the attacker as hard as they possibly can and, in this way, can badly injure, even kill, wild dogs, hyenas and leopards all of which seem to relish the hard to get taste of porcupine meat. It is said that there are only two ways to kill a porcupine but there are many and the one preferred by leopards is to go face to face with a porcupine and, quite literally, bite its head off!

Porcupines are largely nocturnal creatures, coming out way after the sun has gone down but, occasionally, they can be seen, usually heard first, around dusk if they are walking on cemented ground as the surprisingly loud rattle of their quills gives their presence away.

These peaceful unless disturbed creatures enjoy communal living and often excavate joint living quarters, with interconnecting tunnels, as much as 20 metres long and quite deep underground where they live in perfect harmony. Sometimes though, a pregnant female will dig a tunnel and den of her own in which to have privacy to give birth and raise her young.

Porcupines in the plains tend to give birth to two to four young during February or March but can breed twice a year: those in the mountains have just one litter a year, usually during late spring or very early summer.

Unlike many other rodents, porcupines are solely herbivorous which means that they only eat plants, not meat. They enjoy the bark of certain trees, adore potatoes and sweet potatoes, drive farmers mad by raiding fields of ripening corn, they steal melons and fallen mangoes along with any other fruit they can find and are most certainly not a farmer’s best friend!