Dana Allen's Image

Dana Allen (USA/Zimbabwe) watches as a porcupine uses it spiky quills to defend itself against a leopard.

Dana noticed the young leopard first then followed its interaction with the porcupines. ‘I heard growling and digging,’ he recalls ‘then two porcupines came flying out of the opposite side’. The leopard gave chase, one porcupine got away, while the other stopped and turned its back on the big cat.

‘The leopard kept trying to reach its paw around the front or underneath,’ says Dana, ‘but the porcupine would always turn to present its sharp side or try to reverse into its attacker’.

After 15 minutes, the leopard gave up on the attack and instead lay down to remove the quills from its paws. The porcupine, whose lost quills would soon grow back, went on its way having successfully repelled its attacker.

Leopards will eat anything from insects to large antelopes, but a Cape porcupine makes a formidable opponent. When threatened, these large rodents raise and spread their quills, rattling them menacingly.