Meet Quinn, the Jupiter Farms porcupine whose adorable 13-second video has gone viral

Bill DiPaolo
·2 min read
11

JUPITER FARMS — A 13-second video of a pint-sized porcupine chomping on a pineapple has provoked a worldwide internet splash.

About the size of a mini Nerf football and with a nose like a velvet marshmallow, Quinn is a prehensile-tailed rodent that has lit up Instagram and TikTok. The video of the Jupiter Farms porcupine has been viewed more than 40 million times and has more than 2 million likes.

Quinn is a prehensile-tailed porcupine who lives at Mandalay Farms. She is brown and black and has white- and-black-tipped quills and weighs about 6 pounds.
Quinn is a prehensile-tailed porcupine who lives at Mandalay Farms. She is brown and black and has white- and-black-tipped quills and weighs about 6 pounds.

The quill-covered creature has brought responses from Japan, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Greetings from Greece. Actors Penelope Cruz and Jennifer Garner shared it.

T-shirts and trading cards are being considered by the owner of the munching mammal. So are stuffed animals.

“People like to watch Quinn hold the pineapple in her little hands. A mom from the Netherlands says the video helps her kids eat more vegetables. Some say the chewing sound is calming,” said Karin Taylor, owner of Mandalay Farms, a 20-acre private animal sanctuary in Jupiter Farms.

Taylor posted the crazy-cute video Dec. 21 on Instagram on a whim. She had noticed visitors enjoyed watching Quinn eat an apple.

“My phone exploded,” Taylor said.

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Quinn lives with her boyfriend, Quilby. Quinn is brown and black and has white-and-black-tipped quills. She weighs about 6 pounds.

What other animals can visitors see at Mandalay Farms?

Quinn, a prehensile-tailed porcupine who lives at Mandalay Farms, is among the 85 animals at the membership-only menagerie.
Quinn, a prehensile-tailed porcupine who lives at Mandalay Farms, is among the 85 animals at the membership-only menagerie.

Quinn and Quilby are among the about 85 animals at Mandalay Farms, a membership-only menagerie established about seven years ago to promote connections between animals and humans. Taylor also established Mandalay Farms Zoological Society, part of Mandalay Farms, as a nonprofit 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 foxes, five kangaroos, three Asian small-clawed otters and five Nigerian dwarf goats among the sanctuary animals. All were raised in human captivity before coming to the facility on Southeast Ranch Road.

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“They were not taken from the wild,” said Taylor.

Members of Mandalay Farms are given private sessions with the animals with a staff member. Members go into the enclosures with the animals to meet them up close, said Taylor.

The close contact allows members to learn about how animals communicate, their feeding habits, how they connect with scent, use eye contact and convey messages to each other with tail motions, Taylor said.

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“We keep a careful balance between the human connection and the animal’s needs,” she said.

Quinn’s popularity hopefully will promote more understanding of porcupines and other animals, said Taylor.

For example, what’s a group of porcupines called?

A prickle.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Meet Quinn, Jupiter Farms' adorable porcupine, whose video went viral