I'm Coyote Peterson and that is the
North American porcupine
as you can see, he's covered in quills. Get ready...
we're about to enter the SPIKE ZONE!
this morning the crew and I
fueled up and set off down rugged
mountain roads into the high country of
Montana
where we would get the chance to work
with one of the most common and proudly
the second largest rodent in
North American the porcupine. Now this is true porcupine territory right here
all these tall pines... hillsides
perfect place for them to be rummaging around and all
this loose soil
for roots and berries and all sorts of 
delicious porcupine treats
these black and white forest dwellers may
look adorable and cuddly
but as we all know and I was about to
experience their
equipped with nature's reactive armor
just beneath a layer sensitive guardhairs
you will find thousands a barbed quills
that will make any would be predator
think twice about considering the
porcupine for an entree.
Now I've never seen a porcupine before in
the wild and I've never worked with a porcupine
So for me this is gonna be a really unique
experience. The reason I'm able to
get so close to this porcupine
is because it was actually raised in captivity
so this little guy's used to being around
humans
and sometimes cameras this is the second
largest rodent that lives
in North America trumped only by its
aquatic cousin the beaver
now porcupines have incredible claws
they've four claws on the front and
actually a vestigial thumb
which allows them to quickly climb up
trees to evade predators
you can't get to a tree in time what they
do is exactly this
show the rump side and all those quills you
get your nose close to that
and it's gonna be a face full of spikes. Today
my goal is to intentionally get quilled by
a Porcupine
yes you heard me right I'm going to get
quilled by a porcupine
I'm going to show you the right way to
remove these painful barbed quills from either
yourself
or in most cases from snout of your
curious pet
Now I'm being told that when I perform this
example I'm gonna get close to
forty or fifty quills in the back of my
hand I hope you guys enjoy this at home
this one no way cause any harm to the
porcupine their quills are nothing more than
modified hairs
and they continually grow over the life
the animal the only one who's going to
experience any discomfort
is me. Tell you where you don't wanna get quelled... in
the face
that would be pretty bad
Alright, what I want to do is agitate those 
guardhairs and then he should trust his
tail up
into my hand. Alight are you ready? I love how I get
myself into these things...
one, two, ouch yep!
there we go that's a hand full of quills. 
now the ones on the top of my hand
really aren't that bad it's those ones
right there
you see how deep those are into my finger? It
hurts to move my finger right now
I mean I think they touch bone. It hurts
a lot, um I think most of them are going to be
pretty easy to get out
those two are going to be extremely painful. Well I
got a handful the quills here
from my little friend the porcupine right
there, I'm gonna show you guys
how to get these out of either your hand or
your dog
have a feeling this is gonna be pretty
painful. Alright come on lets go...
The one in my finger hurts sooo bad right now
now it's most likely that your dog is
gonna get quilled by a Porcupine
and you know you might think I'm just
gonna pull that quill straight-out
thats no gonna work these have microscopic barbs
on the end and one of the cool techniques
of the porcupine quill is that once it's
in there it works deeper and deeper and
deeper
so want to get these out as quick as you
possibly can. Now I never recommend
that you go out and get yourself quilled by
a Porcupine and the reason that I did this
today
was to show you how to remove quills from
your hand and the reason that I snipped off
the tops of all the quills
is that actually releases pressure inside of the quill, relaxes the barbs
and now they should release out my hand a
bit easier
now what I want to do is gently grab the
quills twist them
and pull straight up. I'm gonna remove the
ones aren't as deep first. I wanna get all those
barbs
and those little points out of there because they
can cause an infection
and that's the last thing that I want to happen. If you were a mountain lion
a bear or a coyote and you got a face full of
these quills I mean
its debilitating I can barely move my hand
and these animals wouldn't be able to then go out and
continue hunting
I can see why eventually
this could cause a large predator like
that to die
wow my hand hurts... okay these are the
last three
its not like a bandaid
and don't just pull it off. You just pull these out it gonna rip all the skin out with it because those
tiny little microscopic
barbs okay I'm gonna twist
and pull straight up thats the goal
ahhh geez!
Ah you can see the blood pouring out now ...you get that shoot with the 
blood?
on my gosh yeah that really hurt...
you good?
oh my gosh... ah my gosh that real
I'm like...it was like I could feel it
pulling all the way out through the skin
ouch!
oh my goodness
wow i mean that was buried into my hand
up to the white that is a serious quill
in my coyote paw
moral of this story do not get quilled by a
Porcupine
I hope you guys learn something here today
if you are ever quilled
snip off the top it will release the pressure
grab
twist and pull it out. I'm Coyote Peterson be
brave
stay wild we'll see on the next
adventure
If you thought that was one wild
adventure
check out these other animal encounters
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and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail this
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