The small but ferocious beast who knows no equal; OR, the
“Safe but frightening Honey Badger Honey-from-hell Tour”

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard. Please stay seated at all times and don’t knock on the glass windows. You will see many fascinating animals but some of them can be dangerous – don’t worry though, that’s the reason we have bars and locked doors. Some of these animals will be big and ferocious while some of them will be cute and furry. Either way, get your camera ready! Let’s start the tour!  First off, you will see the crested porcupine on your right. Those quills that you see can grow 12-13 inches long, and when attacked will shape the quills on the back and neck into a crest to seem more frightening. It is also how they got their name – the crested porcupine. Next up on your left is the small-looking animal that seems very cute and furry and great for a pet, but is actually the exact opposite! This animal has been named the “most fearless animal” by Guinness Records!  The honey badger! Here is its Latin name. Please repeat after me: Mellivora capensis. Again, please. The second syllable, liv, should receive the stress: Mellivora capensis. Again. Good!

Have you ever wondered how the honey badger got its name? The honey badger got its name because of its love for honey. Honey badgers will often go looking for beehives in search of honey. They don’t just eat honey though, they mostly eat meat, but also fruits and vegetables like berries, roots, and bulbs. They eat many different animals: insects, frogs, tortoises, turtles, rodents, birds, and snakes, to name a few. They also eat the eggs of turtles, tortoises, snakes and birds that they might find. 

The honey badger eats tons of different types of meats but remember, its favorite is still honey, nice and fresh from a beehive.

Another name for the honey badger is the ratel, (South African language, Afrikkaans). Even though honey badgers and otters seem quite different, they are actually related. The honey badger has a reputation for being the most fearless animal to walk the earth. Why is that? It’s because of its determination to attack and fight without giving up. Hyenas are a predator to most animals including the honey badger but instead of backing away it runs full on, striking back on the hyenas but still coming out of the fight living.

The honey badger is a mammal and can usually be found in Africa, Southwest Asia and in the Indian Subcontinent. These animals live in holes they have dug themselves; in fact they are so skilled that they can dig tunnels or a burrow in 10 minutes! The burrows they dig for themselves usually include one passage, a nesting chamber, and are usually only 3-10 feet (1-3.2 m) long. Even though these very skilled diggers usually dig their own burrows, they will sometimes also overtake aardvark holes, warthog dens, or termite mounds.

The tail of a honey badger is fairly long and can add an extra 9.1 -11 inches (12-30 cm) to the honey badgers body length! Without the tail, adult honey badgers are only 22-30 inches (55-77 cm) in body length and 23-28 inches in shoulder height. Though the honey badger may seem small, it is actually the third largest badger known to human beings. Usually females weigh less than males because they tend to be smaller.

On average, male honey badgers in Africa weigh 20-35 pounds (9-16 kg) while females only weigh 11-22 pounds (5-10 kg). The legs of a honey badger are lined with thick muscle, short and sturdy, and just like humans they have five toes on each foot. Their claws are remarkably strong and are used to climb trees when hunting for food. These claws are shorter on the hind legs than on the forelimbs. Honey badger claws are 1 and 1/2 inches long. The fur on the lower back of the honey badger in the winter is 1.6-2 inches long (40-50mm) and includes many different types of hair. The hair can be sparse, coarse, or bristle-like, with very little underfur. The summer fur on their back is shorter and only 0.59 inches (15 mm). The belly of the honey badger in the summer is usually half bare.

 The honey badger can protect itself in many different ways. For example, the skin around the honey badgers’ neck is 6 millimeters (almost quarter of an inch) thick which makes it very hard for the predator to dig their fangs into the flesh. Their ears look like small little ridges on their skin and have flaps over them which will automatically close when being attacked. Things that can harm us like bee stings, porcupine quills, and animal bites barely harm them because of their thick skin that acts like a shield. Also, a snake bite will only put them into coma for 2-4 hours. For example, when the honey badger is hunting for a delicious snake feast, it will usually result in getting bitten. Unlike us though, even when bitten by a very poisonous snake like the puff adder, the honey badger will only go to bed for a few hours (go into coma) and then return to their lovely snake feast. If a human gets bitten by this very poisonous snake though, it can result with low blood pressure, a very slow heartbeat, or the opposite: a very rapid heartbeat and these things are only just a few of the very horrifying things that can happen to you after being bitten, and before, and during, your death. 

When they are hunting for food they will either stick their head into the ground and use their sense of hearing to track down the prey or they will use their sense of smell which is a hundred times better than humans. Sometimes when they are hunting escape can be impossible. What do they do then? They fight back fearlessly and with ferociousness even if the predator is many times bigger, like a lion. They will usually fight until either they have died or their opponent has died.

Humans do not know much about the honey badgers’ breeding habits. Usually the honey badger ends up with two cubs that are born blind after around six months. These cubs usually stay around their mother for 12 months before leaving to fend for themselves in the wild. Imagine if you were only 12 months old and you were left in the wild all by yourself where you could become hyena food at any moment. That’s what it is like for the honey badgers. How do these new born baby honey badgers communicate? They communicate by vocalising through different types of whines. How would you communicate, if you were hairy and ferocious, and had an appetite for all of the surrounding animals, even the aardvark?