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Discussion thread: Porcupines episode is published! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-02-21 00:01:31
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Note: this episode is published and ready to listen to, wherever you get podcasts!

Where is my BRAIN, folks? I forgot to start the discussion thread for this week's Erethizonology episode with porcupine scientist Dr. Tim Bean.

I absolutely LOVED recording this and it's such a fun, weird, lighthearted chat. Just exactly what I needed this week and why I started making this podcast over 8 years ago.

Get ready for: porcupine squeaks, stanks, cartoonish noses, romantic gestures that will leave you wanting to bleach your brain, counting quills, male models, flim-flam about quill removal, how to spot a porcupine in the wild, how to gently detain one for research, and so much more

Have you listened? Let's chat about it.

Wishing you green leaves and pumpkin snacks,

Ol' Alie Ward o' the Pod

Files

Erethizonology (PORCUPINES) with Dr. Tim Bean - alie ward

Barbs. Grunts. Bone caves. Dogs who got too close. We got porcupines, folks. Dr. Tim Bean of Cal Poly is as charming an ologist you can get, fielding questions about porcupine squeaks, stanks, cartoonish noses, and some romantic gestures that will leave you wanting to bleach your brain.

Comments

Matt Hirschl

Great episode! So fun to learn about a creature that generally is not front of mind.

Raja

This episode brought to mind all the porcupine interactions I've ever had - in Muskoka, north of Toronto. Climbing a tree to remove a branch for safety... joined by a porcupine (before I knew that porcupines climb trees!); watching a porcupine scratch themselves and seeing quills consequently rain onto the ground; hearing those looouud squeaks in the distance and wondering what they were; a very near miss with my car one night thinking "that animal was SO HUGE they couldn't possibly have been a porcupine", only to find about 8 quills in my tire the next morning; and the scene on my cottage grounds of a porcupine kill - piles of quills EVERYWHERE, but no body remaining! I took a photo of the quill stuck in my baby toe under a microscope and those barbs are the real deal! Loved hearing your expert talk all things porcupine, teaching me so many new things and bringing to vivid memory all those moments!! Thank you for this episode! So wonderful!

ValBeListening

A wonderful episode! Such a sweet moment as Dr. Bean discussed the act of giving other people quills. And wow, the ways human obtain quills and their uses! I didn't expect to be so fascinated by such a spiky critter!

Lizzy Martinez

Teddy's interest in pumpkins - same (quick shout out to the pumpkin Ologies episode, it is one of my top faves). Also loved allll the humor throughout this episode!!!!

Alie Ward

Oh I should have mentioned the pumpkin episode in this one! I'll add it to the show notes!

Alie Ward

Right??? Recording this was like being at the weirdest dinner party

Alie Ward

Holy shit. We may need to post a bunch of porcupine tattoos now

Alie Ward

Did you save any of those quills???

Raja

Totally! I have a small box full! I sent some to random people in a tracking group who wanted to show them to their scouts or craft with them, but there are still lots left. I had no idea that there were different types of quills too!

Alie Ward

I want to see one in the wild soooooo badly now!

Reuben Clamzo

I did, I've been listening since the beginning. I'm Mike Monikowski; I changed my patreon name to have a silly credit in Midnight Burger.

Cara Appel

I'm so glad you featured porcupines!! I was one of Tim's grad students -- thanks for the shoutout about our research :) Can confirm: porcupettes are indescribably adorable, studying porcupines in the field is life-changing, and Tim is wonderful. Happy to see these critters getting the attention they deserve!

Olivier Calas

Yet another great episode about an under-rated critter that you pretty much never get to see in the wild. So many passionate experts out there and you manage to get them all to share their knowledge with us. Alie, you seriously rock;-)

Twenty Three Skidoo

I was so surprised to hear that it’s pretty rare to stumble upon a porcupine in the wild. About 15 years ago, when my family and I went on an Alaskan cruise, I spotted a porcupine waddling across the trail during our hiking excursion. I figured it happened all the time. I feel so grateful to have seen such a fascinating and adorable creature in its natural environment.

Kendall

This episode reminded me of when I was little and asked my dad what the hole in his ear was (obviously a closed ear piercing from his hipper days). He said a porcupine shot its quills at him and one managed to go through the dead center of the lobe. He has stuck by that story ever since 😂

Diana Staresinic-Deane

I've never wanted to see a porcupine in the wild more than I do now after hearing this episode. Also, the word PORCUPETTE delights me.

Nicholas Randell

The one live porcupine I’ve ever seen was at 4am, I was coming off an experimental shift at the synchrotron in Saskatoon and walking to the dorms…I could not figure out why there was a bush walking towards me 😆. Also the eating the brake line things is definitely true. A friend’s jeep got written off when a porcupine got under the chicken fencing and ate his entire wiring harness.

roni 💥

whoever named them “thorn pigs” was definitely onto something. could not have named them anything better. for sure one of the most pokémon animals we’ve got

Naomi Jane

Now I'm trying to think of all the almost-pokemon walking the earth 😆

Susan G

I will never get over porcupettes being the name for a baby porcupine! This is the most joy a baby animal name has brought me since pufflings.

Julie Dupre

Bummer I live on the east coast and will never see one in the wild. However, hearing Teddy’s cute noises made up for it. He had me and my daughters listening to it over and over. My 9 year old is waiting patiently for the smologies ep. to share with her teacher and class. We loved this episode!

Andy Pepper

This episode was great. If anybody wants more porcupines, google up some episodes of the show Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet. Lots of her working on porcupines at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center AND working on poor dogs that have been quilled. A+ TV!

Karen Wells

Alie, I just loved this one and, right at the beginning, shared the episode with my younger daughter who introduced me to the glory of podcasts in general and yours, in particular, saying "I just love Alie Ward!". You sound like a family member in the most loving way I can say it. I feel you, just like I feel Reese's peanut butter cups. I support you.

Colby Evans

You were right on with the statement that Dr Porcupine should be a Marvel character.

Colby Evans

The Porcupine was created in '63 and mainly was stopped by Ant Man and the Wasp.

The Merry Slav

Though I live in Colorado, most of my experience with porcupines was in New England. I woke up on a mountain in Massachusetts with a couple very close to my campsite. Fun to observe. I saw another in a swampy area in Massachusetts and waded out to where he/she? was. In Vermont along the Appalachian Trail they had chewed on a lot of shelters, presumably going after the salt from where sweaty hikers had sat down. Backpackers knew not to leave their boots in a place where the Porcupines could get at them at night for the same reason. Finally, I had a cabin in Maine that a family of porcupines entered through a broken window and lived in for a while. I assure you that as cute as they are, you don't want porcupines as houseguests for an extended period of time.

David Fieni

I loved this episode. It reminded me of the time I carefully shepherded a porcupine here in rural upstate NY who had gotten lost/trapped on our big artificial turn soccer/lacrosse field and couldn't find the small open gate it had entered through. Good times.

Alex Minor

Please, please, please let the next piece of Ologies Merch be, "Porcupines are Goth"

roni 💥

i think pangolins, platypi, aye-ayes, and mantis shrimp are definitely up there.

Hannah Gorrie

I really like her show, second this recommendation!

Jaclyn and her cat Phil

Just when I thought I couldn’t love porcupines anymore (and yes I still want to hug the heck out of them 🥹) This was such a fun episode I loved it so much!

Steph

LOVED this episode!! I am infatuted with porcupines now!!

Lillian Rolfe

I laughed so hard I ruined my mascara application. This episode was exactly what my brain and heart needed. Thanks, Alie.

Alexander Kidd

Gasped when I heard my name mentioned, absolutely forgot I asked a question --- I was caught so off guard. 😂

Lindsay Malone

Oh my goodness, yes! I do not need another t-shirt and yet I also need to show the world my love of porcupines and their wonderful Goth sensibilities. We could all be part of a PSA for porcupines and hedgehogs being on different phylogenetic branches. Or, just love on Goth Porcupines. 🖤🖤🖤

Erick LaPorte

One of my core memories as a child camping in Michigan is following around a porcupine in the woods with an old shoulder resting VHS camcorder. Then last year, hiking in the same woods with my kids, we saw another porcupine. Great to share that with them!

The LKs

Heya Allie! Vet Surgeon here- just wanted to say thank you for promoting the vet care side of quilling! Given that parts of quills that break can migrate internally and cause more damage/infection, sedation/anesthesia with someone experienced in removal is ideal! Saying this as someone that’s removed quills from thoracic cavities, faces, and squishy livers!