Old Knight’s Throwing Spears

Director´s view

Miroslav Bobek  |  27. 10. 2024


Porcupine’s spines are an item in demand, weather as a souvenir, or a material for fishing floats. However, when I visited the Archives of the City of Prague, I discovered to my surprise that the restorers also use them when cleaning the bindings of old books. Lo and behold! I immediately offered that our zoo would become their exclusive supplier for the Prague Archive - and when I published this information, quite a pile of questions on the porcupines’ spines as well as on porcupines themselves were fired off to me. I am going to answer here at least some of them.

Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) in Prague Zoo. Photo: Miroslav Bobek Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) in Prague Zoo. Photo: Miroslav Bobek

I still remember how in my childhood I became interested in a chapter on porcupines in the book “Zvířata zblízka” (Animals from near) by Professor Julius Komárek. After many years I opened it again. In addition to two photos of porcupines it is also accompanied by a picture of porcupine’s spines sticking out of a clay wall, and Professor Komárek writes: “These are actually small spears, pointed outwards, and the porcupine uses them also as throwing spears. It is a unique and dangerous weapon. On the third picture you can see how it turned out when they wanted to catch the escaped porcupine and take it back in the cage. The porcupine defended itself in its hole like some old knight and violently shot sharp spines from his body, so that they stuck deep into the excavated earth.”

I made a little research, and I found that the described event happened in Prague Zoo in 1953. An Indian crested porcupine ran away at that time and dug a deep burrow somewhere behind the old carnivore house. The zookeepers dug their way to it, but the porcupine didn’t give up and defended itself.

But beware, it definitely didn’t shoot its spines, even though our predecessors believed that. Even then director Dr. Cyril Purkyně published an article in Živa magazine where he stated that. After all, they were far from the only ones who were mistaken. And we can’t be surprised by them.

Large porcupines of the genus Hystrix defend themselves against enemies first by trying to scare them off by rattling their spines. When thy don’t succeed, they wave tail in a similar way like we saw the stegosaurus in the movie “Cesta do pravěku” (Journie to Prehistory), and then they back up or lean sideways against the attacker. During that movement their spines stab deep into the attacker and the porcupines release them from their skin. Our curator Pavel Brandl experienced many times during catching porcupines how the spines stuck into the hand or leg of his or his colleagues - even through a strong glove or through a shoe, even five at once in one case. And repeatedly he experienced also “shooting” spines, which either bounced against a solid wall, or flew far and high from the wiggling tail of an angry porcupine. "That's why I always wear glasses when catching porcupines," says Pavel.

It is known that in the wild porcupines can seriously – or even deadly – injure large predators including tigers or lions. It can have very unexpected and unfortunate consequences - which will be the subject of my column next Saturday.

The picture of porcupine’s spines stuck into a clay wall from the book “Zvířata zblízka“ (Animals from Near). Photo František Vopat

The picture of porcupine’s spines stuck into a clay wall from the book “Zvířata zblízka“ (Animals from Near). Photo: František Vopat