We are back at Kirkleatham Owl Centre, giving you a behind the scenes tour. Read about the birds, watch their progress in training, and get up close and personal with other residents, including the meerkat and porcupine families, one of which we meet this week

ALONGSIDE our owls and birds of prey, we have a number of other animals who live at the owl centre including our family of cape porcupine.

And this family has just got bigger with the birth a few weeks ago of two babies.

Cape porcupine are native to southern Africa – and they are huge.

The Northern Echo:

Porcupine dad Hector originated from a wildlife park on the Isle of Man

As one of the world’s biggest rodents, they are in the same family as mice, but are bigger than a Cocker spaniel.

Mainly nocturnal, they eat plants, seeds, fruits and roots. They live in family groups consisting of a male and female pair with their offspring.

Our pair have been with us for a few years now– our male arrived from a wildlife park on the Isle of Man, while the female travelled all the way from the Czech Republic having been born at Prague zoo. They are known as Hector & Henrietta. Last year they produced two babies and a few weeks ago a second litter of twins was born.

Last year’s babies took many months before they emerged from the den – this year’s are out and about at just a few weeks old looking like tiny prickly versions of their parents.

The Northern Echo:

And if you are wondering, baby porcupine are born with only a few spines which are soft and then harden after birth.

Porcupine are of course known for firing their spines at predators, but this is a myth. They don’t, instead they just reverse, very quickly.

If they back into you with their spines, they puncture and lodge in your skin with ease. Very few predators eat porcupine – even lions avoid them.