Sweet, mohawked, maple syrup-scented: Meet the cape porcupine at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
Meet Waffles, an 8-year-old cape porcupine at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Waffles is oblivious to her own magnetism.
With her long, coarse hairs that puff up into a mohawk when she feels threatened or excited to see humans, the maple syrup smell she emits and the impossible to miss crunching sounds she makes when she snacks, it’s hard to not develop a big crush on the one-eyed cape porcupine at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
“Her species smells like that,” said Brooke Powell, senior keeper and one of Waffles’ biggest fans. “When we were training with her and doing relationship building, we’d sit on the ground with her and scratch her and I could smell it on my hands.”
It’s a halcyon morning for the 8-year-old, 44-pound rodent, who’s happily entertaining a small crew of humans and their plentiful snacks and affection. There’s not much she likes more than a good head scratch and a leaf eater biscuit. Even better when they happen at the same time.
“Wait until you see her run,” Powell said. “You’ll fall in love with her.”
She’s not lying. As soon as her keepers shake their ring of keys at the friendly girl from across the yard to come get a treat, she breaks into a waddle run that showcases her tutu of quills and her cute little corgilike rear end.
And wait until she’s tucking into one of her favorite treats — a cob of corn she eats typewriter-style, so as to not miss one kernel.
“She’s got those two big incisors in the front,” Powell said. “We give her a lot of stuff to chew on, to naturally wear those down so they don’t overgrow. We give her boughs to chew on the bark.”
Is she always this friendly?
Ever since she arrived at the zoo in 2016, she’s been a doll. Keepers take her on walks around the zoo without any sort of harness (how would that work anyway?). She’s trained to follow a squeaking target pole with a tennis ball at the end — if she touches her nose to the ball she’ll get a treat.
“She loves interacting with guests. She loves the attention,” Powell said. “She’ll sit there all day and let people touch her and fall in love with her. She’s a great ambassador.”
But if she wakes up on the wrong side of her dirt burrow, will she shoot her quills at me?
Nope. Urban myth. It’s believed the quill shooting misconception stems from North American porcupines, who swing their tails and naturally release some quills.
And good thing, because porcupines are said to have 60,000 quills. There are a few different kinds: sensory quills help her feel around, but get a little pokey; sharp, defensive ones underneath that stand up when feeling threatened; and rattle quills, which look hollow, but sound like a giant rattlesnake when an extra level of defense is needed.
But who would be silly enough to mess with a porcupine in the first place?
Nobody. The porcupine has no natural predator in the wild: “They’re basically a body of armor,” Powell said. But when they do sense a threat, their hairs stand up, they show their quills and do a stomping behavior with their feet.
All her relations
Cape porcupines are the third largest species of rodents behind capybaras and beavers, and they’re three times the size of North American porcupines. One of Waffles’ favorite pastimes, when she’s not napping, is digging in her yard. Cape porcupines are a burrowing species, while North American porcupines love to climb trees. Waffles loves a good burrow where she can tuck herself in, hide from prying eyes and have a snooze.
What’s a porcupine gal like to eat?
Waffles is an omnivore, so vegetables, fruits, tree nuts like peanuts and the occasional frozen and thawed mouse. Pumpkin is a delicacy.
“I love the way she eats, too,” Powell said. “She holds it. She’s so polite. She always wants to lay with her snack.”
And you haven’t lived until you’ve heard a porcupine atomizing her biscuits — it rivals any ASMR YouTube video of fingernails tapping glass.
What’s the state of her five senses?
Rodents would fail every test at the ophthalmologist’s office, but their hearing and sense of smell make up for it. Plus, Waffles is missing one eye. She came to the zoo like that. Keepers aren’t sure what happened in her previous life.
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Waffles, an 8-year-old cape porcupine, runs across her enclosure at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Brooke Powell, a senior animal keeper at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and one of Waffles the cape porcupine’s biggest fans, rubs her belly on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. According to Powell, Waffles got her name because she smells like maple syrup. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
A small bundle of rattle quills can be seen on the rear or Waffle the cape porcupine in her enclosure at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2023. The hallow quills rattle together, sounding like a loud rattlesnake, when she feels threatened. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Waffles perches on a rock as she eats a snack in her enclosure at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Lauren Phillippi, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo keeper, feeds waffles a leaf eater biscuit on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Waffles the porcupine uses her large incisors to grip a cob of corn—one of her favorite treats—before running away to snack on it at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Waffles shows off her tutu of quills at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. Cape porcupines have as many as 60,000 quills. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Waffles snacks on peanuts at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Waffles snacks on peanuts at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)