Fuzzy creature hanging in Arizona tree may count as world’s worst Christmas ornament

Festive tree decorations are the norm this time of year, but a national park in Arizona found something dangling in a juniper this week that easily counts as the world’s worst — and prickliest — Christmas ornament.

A photo posted on Facebook shows something akin to a bad wig hooked on a tree limb at Wupatki National Monument, a 35,422-acre archaeological and nature preserve 30 miles northeast of Flagstaff.

It was big and round, and festooned with a sort of three-dimensional starburst design ... like something you’d put atop a Christmas tree.

“That,” commenter Brian Pierson wrote, “is the backside of a porcupine.”

He was right. A second photo shared by the monument shows the large rodent’s face — or at least it might have been a face. It’s tough to tell one end of a 20-pound porcupine from the other when it’s dangling from a tree.

“Porcupines are often misunderstood animals,” the park wrote. “They are nocturnal, quiet, and generally keep to themselves.”

However, the one in the photo was neither nocturnal nor shy, as it was out in broad daylight, hanging above one of the park’s popular hiking trails.

Park rangers seemed to be offering comfort when they noted it’s a myth that porcupines shoot their quills at intruders like darts. However, that was little consolation to people like David C. Jahntz, who said they never knew porcupines climbed trees.

And if prickly porcupines climb, that means they can fall.

“Porcupines are covered in about 30,000 quills,” DesertUSA reports. “Because quills are so lightly attached, they come off easily when a predator encounters them. When the quills enter the skin of a predator, they work their way further into the skin at a rate of 1 mm an hour.”

So, yeah, they are the world’s worst Christmas tree ornament.

This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 5:42 AM with the headline "Fuzzy creature hanging in Arizona tree may count as world’s worst Christmas ornament."