A single plucky porcupine fought off the unwelcome attention of 17 lions after they surrounded him at night in the open savannah.

The prickly animal was caught in the open by the pride on the Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, which is a private reserve bordering the vast Kruger National Park.

But it was clear he was not prepared to become a light snack (with integral toothpicks) for the hungry lions and used his quills to fight them off.

Footage of the remarkable battle was uploaded to YouTube by workers at the Londolozi reserve last week and has already been viewed more than 100,000 times.

Keeper Lucien Beaumont described the sequence of events on the Londolozi reserve’s blog. The Mhangeni pride had been resting all afternoon, he said, until night fell and it began to cool.

The pride soon became active and started to move with the four male lions in tow. Suddenly we saw the group clump together and it looked like they were surrounding something of interest.’

When he caught up with the pride he found they had encircled a tiny porcupine and were beginning to prod and paw at it, to see how they could take a bite.

‘All was not lost however and the porcupine began to shake its tail (known as a rattle) – the sound of the quills makes a distracting noise,’ said Mr Beaumont.

‘The porcupine began to run backwards into any lion that would come too close for comfort, a common defense mechanism for a threatened porcupine.’

Porcupines’ quills are fused hairs coated with thick plates of keratin, and they are embedded in the skin musculature. They are released by contact with a predator who gets too close, causing pain and potentially leading to an infection.

Crested porcupines like the one in the video are found across Africa and as far north as Italy. They weigh between 30lb and 60lb and their entire bodies are covered with bristles.

They also have a mane of quills running along their heads, napes and backs that can be raised into a crest for protection.

If bothered by predators, a crested porcupine stamps its feet, shake its quills and charge rear end first to try to stab its enemy with its crest.

They are known to have killed lions, leopards, hyenas and even humans. Prickly animal was caught in the open at private reserve in South Africa But instead of giving in to the hungry lions he charged them with his spines Porcupines are known to have killed lions, leopards, hyenas and humans