Stowaway porcupine travels by helicopter, plane, boat and truck on nearly 2,000-km round-trip across B.C.

Andrew Kurjata · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 09, 2025 6:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

A stowaway porcupine is backmost location successful bluish B.C. aft a 2,000-kilometre trip by road, vessel and air across the province.

The young female was dubbed "Mackenzie" aft the B.C. assemblage astir 100 kilometres northbound of Prince George wherever she is believed to person stowed distant successful the wreckage of a tiny level crash. Details of the clang person not been released owed to privateness reasons.

The porcupine was lone discovered aft the wreckage was taken to a salvage gait successful Kelowna — more than 800 kilometres distant from Mackenzie — archetypal by helicopter, past by vessel and a flat-deck trailer.

When the porcupine was unwilling to travel retired from beneath the pilot's seat, workers astatine the yard called connected the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society for help.

"This is decidedly a first," said nine president Eva Hartmann. "That she was transported truthful acold is decidedly unusual."

Hartmann said rescue volunteers had to sedate Mackenzie successful bid to get her retired of the wreckage, and past gave her a speedy examination.

Finding she was healthy, they took her backmost to their installation successful Summerland wherever they posted online astir her plight, including the request to transport her backmost to Mackenzie, arsenic rehabilitation centres are required to merchandise wildlife adjacent to their archetypal homes.

They were contacted by the unpaid radical Big to the Rescue, which offers transport to animals successful need. Mackenzie was taken to the airdrome successful Penticton, B.C., and fixed to aviator Jayson Biggs, who flew her backmost to Mackenzie where conservation officers released her into the woods.

"That was astir apt the longest time of flying I've ever had," Biggs said successful a station connected societal media, calling the merchandise a "big, large success." The station included footage of Mackenzie walking into the forest.

Hartmann said porcupines are mostly solitary creatures truthful contempt having a once-in-a-lifetime story, Mackenzie astir apt wouldn't beryllium telling it to anyone.

LISTEN | Porcupine stows distant successful level wreckage: