Baby porcupine on display at Bronx Zoo

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - A North American porcupine born at the Bronx Zoo in April is now on display at the facility's Children's Zoo, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The male porcupine was born to mother, Alice, and father, Patrick. He is their fourth offspring.

Porcupines can have as many as 30,000 quills covering their bodies, according to WCS. The quills are very soft at birth but begin to harden within a few hours.

"Despite popular belief, porcupines cannot shoot their quills," the WCS said in a news release. "The quills of the North American porcupine have a tiny barb on the tip that, when hooked in flesh, pull the quill from the porcupine's skin and painfully imbed it in a predator's face, paws or body."

The Wildlife Conservation Society's mission is to save "wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature," according to its website. In addition to the Bronx Zoo, its flagship property, WCS runs the Prospect Park Zoo, the New York Aquarium, the Queens Zoo, and the Central Park Zoo.