JUPITER FARMS — A 13-second video of a pint-sized porcupine munching on a pineapple has caused a global uproar on the internet.
The size of a mini Nerf football and with a nose like a velvet marshmallow, Quinn is a prehensile-tailed rodent who has turned Instagram and TikTok on. The Jupiter Farms porcupine video has been viewed more than 40 million times and has more than 2 million likes.
The feather-covered creature has brought responses from Japan, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Greetings from Greece. The actresses Penélope Cruz and Jennifer Garner shared it.
The owner of the chewing mammal is considering t-shirts and trading cards. So are stuffed animals.
“People like to see Quinn hold the pineapple in her little hands. A mother in the Netherlands says the video helps her children eat more vegetables. Some say the chewing sound is soothing,” said Karin Taylor, owner of Mandalay Farms, a 20-acre private animal sanctuary in Jupiter Farms.
Taylor posted the crazy cute video on December 21 to Instagram on a whim. She had noticed that the visitors enjoyed watching Quinn eat an apple.
“My phone blew up,” Taylor said.
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Quinn lives with her boyfriend, Quilby. Quinn is brown and black and has black and white tipped quills. She weighs about 6 pounds.
What other animals can visitors see at Mandalay Farms?
Quinn and Quilby are among 85 animals at Mandalay Farms, a members-only menagerie established about seven years ago to promote animal-human connections. Taylor also established the Mandalay Farms Zoological Society, part of Mandalay Farms, as a non-profit organization that works with local foster programs, at-risk youth and the Salvation Army to promote understanding between animals and humans at the sanctuary.
Mandalay Farms has three species of fox, five kangaroos, three Asian small-clawed otters and five Nigerian dwarf goats among the sanctuary’s animals. All were bred in human captivity before arriving at the facility on southeast Ranch Road.
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“They were not taken from nature,” Taylor said.
Mandalay Farms members receive private animal sessions with a staff member. Members go to the enclosures with the animals to get up close and personal, Taylor said.
Close contact allows members to learn about how the animals communicate, their feeding habits, how they connect with scent, use eye contact and transmit messages with tail wags, Taylor said.
“We maintain a careful balance between the human connection and the needs of the animals,” he said.
Quinn’s popularity is expected to promote a greater understanding of porcupines and other animals, Taylor said.
For example, what is a group of porcupines called?
a prick
Source: news.google.com