Snickers the Friendly Porcupine!

Snickers is a six year old male porcupine who lives at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, AK. He was found alone- either orphaned or temporarily left alone by his mother as a porcupette, or baby porcupine. He is very friendly and loves to play with Center staff and climb on them! This is a video showcasing his climbing skills as he climbs all over me. He wants to climb up people every chance he gets!

About the video:

I make occasional grunting noises because it was cold and I was carrying 30 lb. Snickers on one arm and filming myself with a nearly 3 lb. camera with the other hand. It was difficult.

Snickers, like all North American porcupines, has quills, about 30,000 of them. They fall out naturally every now and then, like your hair, and regrow. They do not shoot quills out, but the quills do release from the porcupine's skin when an animal tries to attack them and comes into contact with the porcupine. Snickers does not feel threatened by me, so his quills are laying down flat and are hard to see under is insulating hairs and guard hairs.

I no longer intern at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center as of July, 2013.

Sadly, on December 30th, 2019, Snickers passed away at his home at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, AK. He was a cute little guy with a fun personality and will be missed.

Видео Snickers the Friendly Porcupine! канала jedspear