Honey Badger

Quick Take

• Honey badgers are immune to venomous snake bites, and the molecular reason why is stranger than you'd expect. Venom resistance explained →
• Lions give honey badgers a wide berth, and their aggression is not the only reason why. Their aggressive nature →
• Their skin can survive arrows and machetes, yet there's one specific weakness that can stop them. Tough skin and weaknesses →
• In some parts of the world, honey badgers' diets take a deeply unsettling turn most people never expect. Their unsettling diet →

Capybaras win the award for the world’s friendliest animal, but at the opposite end of the spectrum sits the honey badger, the planet’s gnarliest mammal! The Guinness Book of World Records lists the small, weasel-like species as the most fearless on Earth. And thanks to a 2011 viral YouTube video, they have earned the reputation for “not caring” — an apt description for animals that attack and steal at will.

Scientists haven’t studied the honey badger much — maybe because of its bad reputation and inhospitable personality.

6 Phenomenal Honey Badger Facts

• Honey badgers are one of the few animals naturally resistant to venomous snake bites. Scientists believe this developed through convergent evolution, in which molecular changes to their nicotinic acetylcholine receptors make them largely immune to the effects of venom — an adaptation that likely emerged because honey badgers actively hunt venomous snakes.
• Their thick, loose skin can easily withstand shots from bows, arrows, and even machetes. The most effective way to kill honey badgers is a gunshot or skull-breaking blow to the back of the head.
• Honey badgers are the only species in the Mellivora genus and are often locally known as ‘ratels.’
• Using their sharp claws, ratels can dig a nearly 10-foot-long tunnel into hard earth within 10 minutes.
• “Honey Badger” has become a common nickname for athletes and politicians with ruthless reputations.
• In 2011, a video entitled “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger” went viral. It was a compilation of various honey badgers doing their ferocious thing, and the voice-over was a man saying, “honey badgers don’t care.” To date, people have viewed the video more than 100 million times.

Evolution

The evolution of the honey badger is murky at best. Scientists believe honey badgers and the American badger evolved from weasels before the “true” badgers of Eurasia appeared. There is one species of honey badger that lives all over Africa, the Middle East, and India.

Fossil records are scarce, but an obvious example of an early honey badger was found in Pakistan in the 1860s and is estimated to have lived during the Ice Age two million years ago. Mellivora sivalensis was found in only one location and hasn’t been studied well.

Mellivora benfieldi has been identified in fossils from Africa and possibly Europe, including sites in Italy, Ethiopia, and South Africa. They lived during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene, approximately 5 to 6 million years ago, and their fossils have been found alongside those of sabretooth cats.

Classification and Scientific Name

The scientific name for the honey badger is Mellivora capensis. Mellivora comes from both ancient Greek and Latin. “Meli” is Greek for “honey,” and “varo” is a Latin verb meaning “to eat” or “to devour.” Capensis is a geographical reference to the Cape of Good Hope, where Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber first described the species. So, strung together, the scientific name for honey badgers translates to “honey eater of the Cape.” This is fitting, since these animals do indeed like to eat honey.

In some parts of the world, the animals are also known as “ratels.”

Subspecies

The 12 subspecies of honey badgers live in different areas, shown in the table below.

Appearance

What do honey badgers look like? Well, anatomically speaking, they have more in common with weasels than other badgers. But in everyday terms, you could say that honey badgers resemble overgrown skunks.

Scientists currently recognize 12 honey badger subspecies with slight aesthetic differences. Generally speaking, all honey badgers have long bodies, broad backs, flat heads, short legs, small eyes, tiny ear ridges, stumpy tails, and short muzzles. What isn’t tiny are their claws, which are strong and long.

Honey badgers are also known for having steel-like skin. It’s thick and loose and can withstand arrow piercings and machete attacks. Plus, bee stings and porcupine pricks don’t affect them in the slightest.

Depending on the subspecies, honey badgers have all-black fur or black fur with a white streak that runs along their spine. In the winter, they carry long, dense fur coats, which are shed in the summer.

Size-wise, ratels are the largest land mustelids in Africa. Typically, measuring from the shoulder, they’re between 9.1 and 11 inches tall and 22 to 30 inches long. Males usually weigh 20 to 35 pounds, while females tip the scales between 11 and 22 pounds — about the size of a small or medium dog.

Under ideal conditions, honey badgers can grow to enormous sizes. Good examples are the three 40-pound females that researchers found living in the Iraqi wild.

Behavior

Honey badgers are notoriously cranky and aggressive — fearless and mean, and they’ll attack almost any animal, including humans, when there’s no escape. To boot, they purposely pick fights and rudely take over other animals’ dens. For the most part, honey badgers stick to themselves, but mating pairs occasionally hang out together in the spring.

As Mother Nature’s backhoe, honey badgers are skilled diggers that can claw long tunnels and burrows in under 10 minutes. Other times, when they’re feeling lazy, ratels will commandeer the dens of aardvarks and warthogs.

Like skunks, honey badgers emit an atrocious odor to repel predators. Their scent also paralyzes bees, making it easier for honey badgers to raid hives for honey.

Habitat

Twelve subspecies of honey badgers are scattered across Africa and parts of the Middle East, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Populations of the species stick to dry areas, grasslands, and forests.

Diet

Honey badgers derive a significant portion of their nutrients from digging up larvae and other insects, but they also feast on snakes, frogs, lizards, turtles, rodents, bird eggs, berries, bulbs, and roots. Honey badgers who call the Kalahari home also eat sheep and goats, and in India, ratels sometimes dig up human remains for meals.

They also eat a lot of poultry, and it’s nearly impossible for game farmers to guard against honey badgers because they dig tunnels to gain access to chicken coops. Plus, honey badgers can dismantle wood enclosures with little effort.

As evidenced by their name, honey badgers also love honey and regularly raid beehives to snatch their favorite snack.

Predators and Threats

Humans aren’t the only species that honor honey badgers as formidable and ferocious foes. Even mighty lions — though they’ve been known to kill honey badgers on occasion — will typically grant the tenacious fighters a wide berth.

Not only is the species combative by nature, but its anatomical features serve as highly effective armor. They can squirm around in their thick, loose skin, making it harder for would-be predators to latch on. Plus, honey badgers are equipped with killer claws and teeth strong enough to slice through tortoise shells.

Despite their formidable defense mechanisms, honey badgers have a handful of natural predators, including African leopards, African rock pythons, Nile crocodiles, and spotted hyenas. Habitat encroachment is also a problem.

Reproduction, Babies, and Lifespan

Very little is known about honey badgers’ reproductive and parenting lives. The only reliable data is from a 42-month-long study conducted by the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park.

What do we know about honey badger reproduction? They mate throughout the year, with a spike in the spring, and gestation lasts about 50 to 70 days. Females have four teats to nurse newborns but give birth to only one or two kits — the term for badger cubs — at a time.

Babies are born blind, suckle for two to three months, and are dependent on their mothers for about a year. In the wild, honey badgers live for about seven to eight years, whereas individuals living in captivity live to about 24 years of age.

Population

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, honey badgers are a least concern species and not in danger of imminent extinction. But that doesn’t mean honey badgers are without threats.

Human population growth causes more wildlife encroachment. In the days of old, people and honey badgers rarely came into contact. But these days, honey badgers often find themselves face-to-face with armed farmers committed to protecting their livestock. As a result, honey badger population numbers are declining.

Currently, there isn’t a worldwide estimate for the honey badger population, but they’re disappearing from places where they were once plentiful.