It is an animal magnificently protected by its spikes, which produce wounds that almost always become infected. It is not aggressive and tends to live alone in burrows where it spends the day, coming out to sleep at night. The mating season is in spring. The young are born without spikes, which begin to appear after three days. They do not leave the burrow, following their mother on her nocturnal outings, until their spikes have hardened. Their most well-developed sense is that of smell.