Blond Porcupine

An evening walk in the Muskeg Meadows Nature Preserve (Wrangell's golf course) last night provided and encounter with an animal I have never seen - a blond porcupine.  This isn't some different species of porcupine, just a color that I have never seen on one.

This guy was just strolling down the cart path without a care in the world.  The golf course was nearly empty with only one pair of golfers somewhere on the course in the distance and Andrea and I walking around with cameras hoping to encounter something photoworthy.

We weren't particularly hidden from this porky as it approached us but in typical porcupine fashion, it continued down the middle of the path oblivious to our presence.  Having a back full of potentially deadly spines has "freed" the minds of these creatures allowing them to spend more time in deep contemplation rather than attention to their surrounding world.  At least that is one possibility that I imagine sometimes when I watch porcupines either slowly plodding along the ground or sitting high in a tree looking down on the world.  Porcupines are not the most beloved of animals, many dog owners despise them especially if they are the owner of a dog that doesn't learn from experience and many foresters despise them as well as porcupines can do a lot of damage to groves of young trees as they strip them of their bark to access the sweet sugary inner bark and sap.  I have more sympathy for the dog owners than the foresters as porcupine quills can cause a great amount of discomfort for the dog and even lead to death if all of the quills are not removed as they can continue to move further inside the dog until they pierce a vital organ.  I have an old friend whose dog had to have one of her eyes removed because of a unseen quill that eventually migrated through her face into her eye socket.

Too be honest with you, I am interested to know what getting spined by a porcupine feels like but despite countless opportunities, I have not followed through with the necessary action to quell (or quill) this curiosity.  I haven't figured out how to go about getting intentionally quilled nor have I decided what part of my body I would sacrifice for this experiment.  I'll be sure to let people know how it goes if I ever follow through with this idea.

Porcupines are also supposed to be rather tasty animals, they are eaten regularly in the northern colder parts of Alaska but this is also an aspect of porcupines that I am interested in but have yet to follow through with.  I have had countless opportunities to shoot or club one of these animals but each time I have considered it, my soft side comes to the surface when that cute, lumbering, seemingly helpless animal looks at me.  Maybe someday I'll follow through with this experiment as well.