Guests at Alta Ski Area in Utah have long shared the slopes with their resident porcupine population and most interactions are peaceful.
However not all porcupine encounters are entirely harmless as evidenced by one featured in the below video. This little rascal seriously latched on to the skier’s snowpants (you can see it lifting clear off the ground as the skier raises his leg).
Not sure what kind of damage a porcupine bite would induce and I have not interest in finding out. Everyone present got a good chuckle but if the critter broke skin it might have been a different outcome. Moral of the story: if a porcupine approaches give it plenty of room.
Porcupines don’t usually use biting as their primary defense mechanism, typically relying on their quills instead. But they do have a pretty powerful jaw with large, enamel-surfaced cheek-teeth capable of chewing on and eating tree wood.
