Toponymie | Canton de Potton | Place Names

This road name may be something of a prickly matter!  Porcupine Road or Chemin des Porc-Épics was not chosen because of a significant population of these ungainly fellows in the neighbourhood, but rather to respect a rural theme of indigenous plants and animals.

Who has not seen this near-sighted, slow moving, ungainly rodent covered with barbed quills nature has provided for its defence?  And how many curious dogs have suffered their painful extraction?  Wikipedia tells us that porcupines do not “throw” their quills – but rather that they detach easily and that the barb makes removal difficult once lodged in an attacker.  Interesting as well is that the porcupine is the only native North American mammal with antibiotics in its skin.  Those antibiotics prevent infection when a porcupine falls out of a tree and is stuck with its own quills upon hitting the ground.  Porcupines fall out of trees fairly often, because they are highly tempted by the tender buds and twigs at the ends of branches.