The honey badger (Mellivora capensis), also known as the ratel (/ˈreɪtəl/ or /ˈrɑːtəl/), is a mammal widely distributed in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. As we know, Honey Badgers are known to kill humans with ease. As tough as they are, honey badgers do have to be on the lookout for natural predators such as lions, leopards, pythons and hyenas. Because of its wide range and occurrence in a variety of habitats, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Bespoke safaris and stories. The honey badger has an appetite for food ranging from small mammals and the young of large mammals to birds, reptiles, insects, carrion, and even a little vegetation, including juicy fruits. General EnquiriesAdvertisingEditorsTravel with usCEO. There is a reason why the Guinness Book of Records lists the honey badger as the ‘most fearless animal in the world’…. Some say honey badgers don’t care, but that reputation is hardly fair. This brave man attempts to agitate the cassowary with a stick, and the large flightless bird … An African bird called the greater honeyguide is famous for leading people to honey, and a new study shows that the birds listen for certain human calls to figure out who wants to play follow … Honey badgers are sexually size dimorphic, with males at least one-third larger than females. Photo Galleries, Photographer of the Year. Watch as a cassowary attacks a human, and decide for yourself if its attack strategies are on par with that of the honey badger. Honey badgers usually only have one or two kits at a time after a six-month gestation period. Both the honey badger, a small mammal, and the honey guide, a bird, live on the savannahs in Africa. A few weeks too early / late and a few kilometres off course and you could miss the greatest show on Earth. As many as 12 honey badger subspecies have been suggested, but intraspecific taxonomy has not yet been sufficiently studied, and no DNA investigation of subspecies has been completed. Honey badgers tend to live in low densities, which makes assessing the population harder. The cassowary is a very shy but deadly bird. When defending itself, the honey badger can produce a booming ‘rattling-roar’ and will rush towards its attacker, rather than away from them. Once the hive is open and the honey is taken, the bird feeds on the remaining larvae and wax. The little bird leads a honey badger to a beehive, and then waits good-naturedly for the honey badger to open up the hive and enjoy the honey and bee larvae. They live in holes. The mantle and the stripe may vary in colour and thickness from one individual to the next. Honeyguides are named for a remarkable habit seen in one or two species: guiding humans to bee colonies. It should be noted though that this behaviour has not been reported after Stevenson-Hamilton’s claims. As their names imply, the honeyguide bird and the honey badger both share an affinity for honey. While they feed on a wide variety of foods including birds, small mammals, insect larvae, scorpions, lizards, rodents and eggs, their most impressive kill has to be highly venomous snakes such as cobras, puffadders and black mambas. Honey badgers are territorial and use their anal scent glands to mark their territory. Be inspired & stay informed about Africa. Badger-friendly honey has become commonplace in many shops in South Africa, in an attempt to provide a financial incentive to honey farmers to conserve honey badgers – the solutions often being as simple as placing beehives high up, out of the reach of foraging honey badgers. The males play no part in rearing the young. If you're wondering why you've been instructed to carry a smoking stick (or for that matter, where the … When and where to go in Africa, and with whom. “While on safari in Linyanti, Botswana a few years ago, I met an Australian couple who were keen to see a honey badger. Read about an interesting encounter between a honey badger and black-backed jackals here: Fantastic sighting: Honey badger versus jackals. Although ground-dwelling, honey badgers are also accomplished climbers and can scamper up a tree to raid bird nests or beehives. Honey badgers have immensely strong jaws, and in sparse regions such as the Karoo they provide for themselves by cracking open tortoise shells and feasting on the meat inside. Though honey badgers are named for their habit of raiding beehives, they mainly hunt rodents, reptiles and insect larvae, along with the occasional antelope calf, cheetah cub and eagle chick. Read about how protective honey badgers mothers can be in this article: Leopard attacks baby honey badger, then mother retaliates, Despite their ferocious reputation honey badgers are seldom unnecessarily violent. In Africa males weigh about 10 to 15 Kg, while females usually stay in the 5 to 10 Kg. Humans and their basic weapons and methods of attack are often no match for either of these fearsome beasts. Honey Badger Facts: Size. Their lives are solitary, and … Honey … In southern Africa, honey badgers do not have a fixed breeding season and kits are born year-round. The Mustelid family is rather diverse and includes eight other badger species, weasels, the wolverine, and otters. Wild honeyguides have demonstrated the capability to understand a human call to accompany them to l… They are found across sub-Saharan Africa from the Western Cape in South Africa through to southern Morocco and south-western Algeria, and across to the Middle East and India. TRAVEL WITH AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC Once the honey badger has ransacked the hive, the honey guide bird … Honey badgers have an acute sense of smell which helps them to locate their prey, which they catch mainly through digging. OVER A PERIOD OF TIME IT BUILDS CHARACTER AND STRENGTH. They do not have a fixed den, but rather move about their home ranges, usually sleeping in a different self-dug hole every night – though they have also been known to use old aardvark and warthog burrows on occasion. Publisher This reputation is in part due to its appearance, that stocky frame and those long powerful claws, but really it is the honey badger’s tenacity that sets it apart from the rest. Male honey … Once the Honey Badger has left, the Honeyguide will fly in and eat the leftover larvae and beeswax. The name badger was given to the honey badger because of its superficial resemblance to the Eurasian badger, but the two species are not closely related, and the honey badger is the only representative species of a separate subfamily. The honey badger is very adaptable; for example it is naturally diurnal during winter, but if there are humans around, it will adopt nocturnal habits. The bird will then wait for the Honey Badger to break open the beehive and to have its fill. Many of their … Est. Usually, the Honey badger breaks the beehive, eating larvae, after which … Another obstacle to the conservation of this unique species is the sheer size of their home range, with males occupying roughly 638 km², and females 138 km².
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