Old World porcupines | Hystricidae

Stekelvarkens | Puercoespines

The largest rodents in Europe, and the only ones armoured with quills. Those quills are modified hairs of solid keratin, up to thirty centimetres long over the rump, loosely rooted and never thrown: the animal turns and backs into its attacker so that they pull free and stay behind. On the tail stand short quills open at the tip which give a dry rattle when shaken; together with stamping, hissing and the raising of the crest along the back, that makes a warning which works at a distance. The body is heavy, the gait that of a sole-walker with blunt digging claws, and the food is roots, tubers, bulbs and bark, supplemented with gnawed bones for their mineral. They are strictly nocturnal and spend the day in a burrow system, dug or taken over. The litter is small; the young are born with soft quills that harden within a day.