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 and don't forget subscribe to follow me

and the crew

on this season of Breaking Trail this episode a breaking trail

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