Porcupines 'Mo and Farah' rescued after escaping Dumfries farm

Two African porcupines are back home at a Dumfries Farm Park after being spotted on a housing estate at the weekend.

Mo and Farah were going to be revealed as Dalscone Farm's newest animals 24 hours after they made their escape on Saturday morning.

Resident and keen amateur photographer Keith Higham spotted the prickly pair as they weaved between cars in Heathhall.

Animal keeper at Dalscone, Ben Best said: "On Saturday morning, when we came in, they were no longer here so it was a very stressful and really frantic looking around the farm to see where on earth they were.

"This was until, thankfully, we got the phone call to say they were actually about a mile and a half away at Heathhall housing estate.

"A resident had phoned in and she had two porcupines in her garden. She asked 'did they, by any chance, happen to be ours?' And I said that unfortunately, they were."

Because they were new animals to the park, the pair didn't have names before the weekend.

Since their escape, they have been named Mo and Farah due to their ability to move a great distance in a short space of time.

Ben added: "They weren't actually supposed to be revealed to the public until 24 hours later.

"They had other ideas though, and we let the porcupine out of the bag, as the saying goes."

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