Photograph Showing Aftermath of a Porcupine Selfie: Fact Check

Story:

Photograph of California Tourist in Yellowstone Hospitalized after Taking Selfie with Porcupine

Other Versions

This Photograph Shows the Painful Aftermath of a Porcupine Selfie.

Fact Check:

A photograph popular online purports to show the Painful Aftermath of Taking a Porcupine Selfie. It appears to show a Man’s face and chest full of Porcupine thorns (quills). Some versions also detail he’s a California tourist in Yellowstone hospitalized after taking Selfie with a Porcupine. Although many viewers believed in the story, it is not real.

Story Around Porcupine Selfie Photograph

In mid-June 2019, an alleged story appeared on Imgur describing the ‘incident’ of the man with a North American Porcupine. It said San Diego man Lee came across a dog-like, lovable giant ball of fur creature while touring in Yellowstone. Then he proceeds to bear hug the cuddly fur baby, asking his wife to take a photo of him. The story says Lee realized only later the cute fur was indeed a giant sized North American Porcupine.

The photograph story about the aftermath of taking a selfie with Porcupine appeared on various social media and image sharing websites. Consequently, the photograph became popular because of the nature of the content.

Not Real – Student Art Display

In the first place, there are no credible reports to confirm the incident accompanying the photograph. It is also questionable how and why the man in the photograph is without a shirt and having his face and chest full of Porcupine quills. It turned out, the person in the photograph is one of the students of the Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan (City in Morocco) conducting an exciting experience in the middle of the street. He stuck plastic needles to his body and went on road as part of a physical expression in the abstract arts taught at the institute. The art student carried out the expression on the main street of Tetouan, before the security forces intervened.

The story on Imgur is most certainly a taunt on tourists who, while on vacation, commit acts of stupidity messing with wild animals. In fact, it mentions the same at the end of the story. So, the messages saying the photograph shows the painful aftermath of taking selfie with a Porcupine is a hoax. Nonetheless, the art expression using plastic needles appears online with various funny and satire messages like that’s not how Acupuncture works.

Hoax or Fact:

Hoax.