Lions and porcupines who came out to feed one night met in an open grassland, the porcupines were larger and their limbs were shorter, looking like a large ball of meat that could walk.
This is a big temptation for the lion, so the lion intends to eat a full meal, but when he gets closer, he finds that the whole body of the pierced body is full of bags...
Is this what's going on? You may not be too familiar with porcupine, let's take a look at porcupine.
<h1>Porcupines are not pigs</h1>
Some friends will think that the porcupine is a kind of wild boar as the name suggests, and some friends think that it belongs to the same category as the hedgehog because of the appearance of the porcupine, but in fact, these ideas are wrong.
Although the name of the porcupine looks a bit pig, from the appearance of the hedgehog is more similar, but in fact the porcupine belongs to the rodents, and the pig has nothing to do with the pig with even hooves, so roughly speaking, the porcupine and rats, squirrels, bamboo rats and other rodents are "close relatives" relationship, can also be considered to be "thorny" rats in a broad sense.
There are about 3 genera and 11 species in the porcupine family, mainly living in Eurasia and Africa, such as the Malay porcupine, the South African porcupine, and the broom-tailed porcupine. As a rare wild animal, the porcupine is black all over and has dense black and white spines on its back, so it is also known as "arrow pig" and "thorn pig".
Under normal circumstances, these pointed and long spines on the back of the porcupine will not be erected, but flat on the back, but when the porcupine encounters danger, the spines on the back will be erected immediately, but do not underestimate these thorns, which is much more powerful than the spikes on the back of the hedgehog, which can protect the porcupine from the threat of natural enemies and is an important weapon for them to defend against predators.
<h1>The spines on the porcupine are special. </h1>
According to the research of wildlife experts, it has been found that the porcupine not only has a large number of spines, but also has a very unique structure. First of all, in terms of quantity, according to statistics, an adult porcupine can grow more than 30,000 spikes on its back, and these dense spines make many predators unable to get close, and each thorn is very hard, but it is very easy to fall off.
Once a predator attacks it, dozens of hard thorns fall off and easily stab into the predator's skin, making it difficult to get them down.
Although the spines of porcupines fall off easily, the spines of porcupines are made of keratin, so these spines will grow again like long human hair after they fall off, but it will take some time.
Secondly, in terms of structure, a research team has conducted research on North American porcupines, and researchers have used microscopes to find that there are many forks at the ends of the porcupines, which are similar to barbs, and the number is at least about 800.
After in-depth study of this, it was found that the role of these barbs is to ensure that the stab is difficult to be unplugged after entering the enemy's body, and this structure can also reduce the consumption of porcupine energy to a certain extent, such as when defending and attacking.
After understanding the structure of the barb on the porcupine thorn, some scientists designed a subcutaneous injection needle according to the structure of this barb, and it is reported that this injection needle can save 80% of energy compared with traditional syringes.
Not only that, after many trials, it has been proved that this shape of the syringe can also reduce the pain of the patient to a certain extent. In addition, some scientists have also used the principle of porcupines to stab barbs to invent a special band-aid, which has a convenient fit and labor-saving effect.
<h1>Lions can't beat porcupines</h1>
Don't underestimate these porcupines, which are only 30 kilograms at most, because they can often "stab" lions without temper. African lions and porcupines live very close together, so the two often "see each other".
According to a 2019 survey, there are about 50 records of lions being stabbed or killed by porcupines, and the study also found that lions living in arid areas are more keen to prey on porcupines, and if the attack is not successful, the lions not only have empty stomachs, but also have thorns on their faces, especially if the thorns happen to be stuck in the jaws, teeth or noses of lions, in addition to pain, it will also affect future hunting.
<h1>Porcupines are not "indestructible". </h1>
The carnivores represented by lions are actually not as stupid as imagined, and after suffering several losses, they will also calm down and begin to observe and look for porcupine flaws, especially old lions.
First of all, they will never impulsively use their mouths to forcibly bite, they aim at the head of the porcupine, as long as the porcupine exposes the head, they will stomp on the porcupine with one foot, making it impossible to escape.
Next, carefully bite off these dense thorns on the porcupine with a handful of teeth, and when the "desing" work is almost complete, the porcupine is not far from death.
It can be seen that the best weapon in the animal kingdom is the "brain", even if the porcupine is full of thorns, it is impossible to avoid being calculated by other animals, thus becoming the end of other animals.