Brave Leopard Attempts To Take on Two Honey Badgers In An Epic Battle

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The feeling of hunger is not a pleasant feeling anyone wishes to experience. And animals are no different. Unlike humans, animals can’t just DoorDash some tacos and tortilla chips with a cool glass of Coca-Cola. Predators have to hunt for their food no matter how tired or starving they may be. And sometimes they are even willing to hunt aggressive prey just to get what they need to stay alive. Don’t miss this action in the video above!  

Hungry Leopard Hunts for Food

The short YouTube video clip shown at the beginning of the article was filmed by tourists on a safari in Africa. The MalaMala Game Reserve channel shared this footage with their almost one million subscribers. They frequently share brand-new videos of wild animals such as crocodiles, lions, jackals, vultures, elephants, and more. 

Honey Badgers Put Up a Fierce Fight 

As the video above starts out, we see that a fleet of vehicles are on an African safari. Here these tourists get to experience wildlife in raw form. Suddenly, they see a leopard hunting for food, and it has its sight set on two mature honey badgers just up ahead. According to BBC Wildlife Magazine, “​​Honey badgers, particularly young ones, can be predated by larger predators such as lions, leopards and hyenas.” 

Well, these honey badgers are far from little, and so this leopard has his work cut out for him. He charges in at up to 36 miles per hour and plows into them both. He grabs one and takes off, thinking he has the victory. But, this is only the beginning of his troubles.

The second one follows in a close pursuit. And we get small glimpses through the trees in real-time of the leopard dropping the honey badger, and trying to fight them both off. By the end of this video, we see the leopard perched up on a tree doing what he can to stay away from these mammals. 

Are Honey Badgers Aggressive? 

Honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) of the family Mellivora are a small but mighty species. As Live Science would put it, they may be known as being adorable but they are also extremely aggressive. “The honey badger’s aggressive nature does not make them an easy meal.” 

Honey badgers weigh anywhere from 11-35 pounds, and reach about 11 inches in height. Something so small can’t be that fierce, can it? They have 1.5-inch long claws that are a powerful weapon against their predators. In fact, these claws are known to even be able to crack the shell of a tortoise. So, we can only imagine how fierce this fight was to make this leopard back off. More like runoff, if we’re being honest.