One place we hunted quail in the Mojave, there is cholla cactus. The quills are usually 1 1/2 - 2" long. There are places that it was so thick you couldn't ride a horse thru the "forest" of these things. Its not a porcupine, but I'd trade it all for hundreds of porcupines.

My lab hadn't been around it before that hunt. She ran thru the stuff first covey we came up on. She stood still and never made a peep while I pulled probably a hundred quills out of her.