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Quills grow in varying lengths and colours, depending on the animal's age and species. Porcupines' quills, or spines, take on various forms depending on the species, but all are modified hairs coated with thick plates of keratin [16] and are embedded in the skin musculature. Old World porcupines have quills embedded in clusters, whereas in New ...
The spines on the tail are hollow, and used to make a rattling sound to scare away predators. An erectile crest of long, bristly hairs runs from the top of the head down to the shoulders. The spines and quills cover the back and flanks of the animal, starting about a third of the way down the body, and continuing onto the tail.
In many cases, spines are a defense mechanism that help protect the animal against potential predators. Because spines are sharp, they can puncture skin and inflict pain and damage which may cause the predator to avoid that species from that point on. The spine of some animals are capable of injecting venom. In the case of some large species of ...
The "quills" are mixed with long, soft hairs. They vary in size from the relatively small prehensile-tailed porcupines , which are around 30 cm (12 in) long, and weigh about 900 g (32 oz), to the much larger North American porcupine , which has a body length of 86 cm (34 in), and weighs up to 18 kg (40 lb).
Meet the Lowland streaked tenrec.This animal resembles both a hedgehog and a shrew. But its most notable feature is its bright yellow and black colored quills. These unusual creatures only exist ...
A maladaptive, behavioural disorder commonly seen in captive birds which chew, bite or pluck their own feathers with their beak, resulting in damage to the feathers and occasionally the skin. [ 200 ] [ 201 ] It is especially common among Psittaciformes , with an estimated 10% of captive parrots exhibiting the disorder. [ 202 ]
Old World porcupines are stout, heavily built animals, with blunt, rounded heads, fleshy, mobile snouts, and coats of thick cylindrical or flattened spines, which form the whole covering of their bodies, and are not intermingled with ordinary hairs. The habits of most species are strictly terrestrial.
Adult aardvarks have only cheek teeth at the back of the jaw, and have a dental formula of: 0.0.2-3.3 0.0.2.3 These remaining teeth are peg-like and rootless and are of unique composition. [28] The teeth consist of 14 upper and 12 lower jaw molars. [ 6 ]