Take you to the real animal kingdom "flat-headed brother" honey badger

Honey Badger: Cute but fierce little mammal

Honey badgers are small, muscular mammals known for their ferocious nature Honey badgers are known for their ferocious, aggressive small mammals. Honey badgers, also known as rat-tailed badgers, belong to the mammalian ferret family, which also includes weasels, otters, ferrets, wolverines and other badgers. However, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the honey badger belongs to its own subfamily, the honey badger subfamily, and is the only species in the honey badger genus.

What is a honey badger?

The Mellivora capensis is about as big as a small to medium-sized dog and weighs between 13 and 30 pounds. According to National Geographic, (6 and 14 kg) shoulder heights of 9 to 11 inches (23 to 28 cm) (open in the new tab). But the honey badger is more powerful than its compact size suggests— animals are built for combat, not speed. Honey badgers have powerful 1.5-inch(4 cm) long claws and teeth that are large enough to crush the shell of the turtle, making these small mammals formidable opponents.

This stocky animal has a short, thick coat of fur that is black on the face, legs, and lower body, and has a broad white stripe that extends from the top of the head down to the back and tail. Underneath the fur, there is a layer of loose and thick skin around the muscular neck that protects the animal in battle and makes it writhe and protect itself at the hands of hungry predators, according to Africa Geography. According to Ronald Nowak's Walker's World Carnivore, porcupine spines, bee bites, and dog bites rarely penetrate the thick neck of honey badgers" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).

Honey badgers are relatively large. They are one of the few non-primates to use tools – widely considered a sign of intelligence in the animal kingdom. According to a documentary about honey badgers produced by the BBC, captive honey badgers are known to unlock gates together and use rocks, rakes, dirt and sticks to escape their fences.

Honey Badgers also have a secret weapon to protect themselves. Hidden at the bottom of its tail are two glands that spew out a foul-smelling liquid that can be detected up to 130 feet (40 meters) away, according to the National Institute for Biological Diversity in South Africa. Animals usually excrete this substance to mark their territory, but they also release "stink bombs" when threatened or scared. Jonathan Kindon, a zoologist at the University of Oxford, said in his book Mammals of East Africa (opened in a new label) "(University of Chicago Press, 1977) This liquid may have a calming effect on bees, allowing honey badgers to attack beehives more safely."

What do honey badgers eat?

Honey badgers are omnivorous and feed on a variety of foods, including birds, reptiles, rodents, berries, roots, and fruits. Their keen sense of smell helps them sniff out food hidden underground, while their long, strong claws help them dig or catch food, which is then torn to pieces. They are not picky eaters and will do their best. According to the BBC documentary, three honey badgers have been seen chasing seven adult lions away from their prey.

Honey badgers are ferocious hunters known for preying on powerful animals such as the South African oryx, a large horned antelope that is more than 10 times larger than the honey badger. According to the BBC documentary, they are also tenacious hunters, willing to travel 20 miles (32 kilometers) for a meal.

While honey badgers are named after their fondness for honey, they are actually interested in honey larvae in honey rather than in the sugary syrup itself. Small mammals are so fond of bee larvae that they can endure hundreds of bites from angry bees in order to grab their paws onto sweets. But not all raids were successful — according to National Geographic, desperate honey badgers were stung in large hives.

As fearless predators, honey badgers will not hesitate to hunt scorpions or poisonous snakes for dinner. However, these foods will fight back and the honey badger may be bitten or stinged by prey, such as the highly venomous cobra horn (Naja nivea), whose venom can temporarily knock down the honey badger. But after a few hours, the honey badger wakes up and continues eating (if the meal hasn't left yet).

Danielle Drabeck, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota, told Slate Journal that snakes, including venomous snakes, are an "excellent source of meat" for honey badgers, accounting for 25 percent of the honey badger diet. In order to eat venomous snakes, which is a deadly food choice for most carnivores, honey badgers have evolved a special immunity to toxins in snake venom. In their 2015 study, published in the journal Toxicon, De la Baker and her colleagues found that honey badgers had evolved a series of genetic mutations that prevented snake toxins from binding to cell receptors, which signaled their nervous systems to shut down. Similar venom defense mechanisms have evolved in other mammals that share habitat with venomous snakes, including mongooses, hedgehogs, and even wild boars.

Honey badgers have few natural predators, but they are occasionally hunted by leopards, lions and hyenas. However, the aggressiveness of honey badgers does not make them an easy meal, and given their small size, predators' efforts are usually best spent on easier meals that eat more meat.

Where do honey badgers live?

Honey badgers are native to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and India. These incredibly tough and hardy creatures are well adapted to a variety of habitats and can live in tropical rainforests just like they would in the mountains. Typically, honey badgers have a home area of about 193 square miles (500 square kilometers) (opened in the new tab), according to National Geographic.

Honey badgers are territorial creatures that mark their territory with their odor glands. According to the National Biodiversity Institute of South Africa, male honey badgers have larger territories than females, and their territories can overlap with female territories. Honey badgers usually don't settle in the same place at the end of each night, but instead make a new bed in a tree, in a crevice in a rock, or in a hole dug into the ground. These creatures are professional diggers who can build a cave on hard ground in 10 minutes. But honey badgers are also happy to make their home in abandoned aardovy or mongoose burrows. They spend most of the day sleeping, hoping to be in a place far away from predators. According to Africa Geography, honey badgers are mostly nocturnal, but depending on weather conditions and the presence of predators, they may appear during the day.

When do honey badgers breed?

Honey badgers breed throughout the year, and females usually give birth to a cub 7 to 10 weeks after mating. Honey badgers or cubs are born with their eyes closed, hairless and pink skin. According to the San Diego Zoo, it takes the cub about a month to grow gray skin, fur and broad white stripes characteristic of its back. According to the North African Large Carnivores Foundation, it takes about two months for the cubs' eyes to open.

The cubs reach adult size at approximately 6 months of age but will live with their mothers for up to two years. During that time, the cubs learned the art of digging, hunting, and climbing trees—skills they needed before venturing out independently. Honey badgers can live up to 26 young people in captivity and up to 7 years in the wild.

The future of honey badgers

The IUCN Red List lists honey badgers as the least concerned species, meaning their populations are stable in most of their native habitats. However, some populations are shrinking to the point where only so few honey badgers remain, so much so that they are considered endangered in the region. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in some places, such as Morocco, Israel and Kazakhstan, they are legally protected species to prevent their populations from declining.

While honey badgers can hunt venomous snakes and fight lions, they are not human opponents. According to the IUCN Red List, in some areas, including Zambia and Guinea, honey badgers are hunted as jungle animals and used in traditional medicine, as some believe that the creature's reputation for fearlessness and tenacity will somehow be transferred to humans.

As humans developed once wild areas and invaded honey badgers' territory, clashes between humans and honey badgers increased. Honey badgers, in particular, are known for killing livestock and destroying beehives, which has led beekeepers and farmers to kill honey badgers in order to protect human livelihoods. According to the IUCN Red List, some beekeepers and livestock farmers deliberately poison honey badgers in retaliation for the loss of livestock or beehives, pushing honey badgers to extinction in some areas.

As scavengers, honey badgers are also often used to kill in poisoning and trapping schemes of other pests, such as black-backed jackals and bad cats. Since 2002, conservation initiatives have led to the production of "badgers-friendly" honey, which comes from beekeepers who use non-lethal methods to protect beehives. For example, the Endangered Wildlife Trust recommends that beekeepers place hives on shelves or scaffolds 3 feet (1 m) above the ground and away from what honey badgers can climb. Because honey badgers don't jump and don't jump that high, it's an effective way to prevent honey badgers from destroying hives, saving bees and honey badgers, and protecting beekeepers' livelihoods.