Facts about Honey Badgers
They have been named the most fearless animal in the Guinness Book of World Records for a number of years. They are famous for attacking male humans' testicles when provoked. It is also called the Ratel. They are well known for their snake killing abilities, by which they will grab a snake behind the head in its jaws and kill it. Honey badgers can devour an entire snake (150 cm/5ft or less) in 15 minutes. Honey badgers have a great appetite for beehives. Some sources say that a bird called 'honeyguide' has a habit of leading honey badgers and other large mammals to bees' nests. When a honey badger breaks into the nest, the birds take their share too. It is found in Africa and some parts of South Asia like Pakistan, Iraq, India and Iran. The honey badger is usually found in arid grasslands and savannahs. The honey badger is among the fiercest hunters in its range, with prey including earthworms, termites, scorpions, porcupines, hares, and even larger prey such as tortoises, crocodiles up to one metre in size, and snakes (including pythons and venomous species). Its ferocious reputation extends to attacks on animals much larger than itself. Honey badgers are very intelligent animals. They are one of the few animals capable of using tools. In the 1997 documentary series Land of the Tiger, a honey badger in India was caught on film making use of a tool. The animal rolled a log and stood on it to reach a kingfisher fledgling stuck up in the roots coming from the ceiling in an underground cave. Lions and leopards are natural predators of honey badgers, but normally they are not able to kill honey badgers. It has been told that there is a video record of a leopard trying to kill an old female honey badger which was toothless and blind in one eye also, still it took about an hour to kill the honey badger. Weight of an adult Honey Badger weighs from 5.5 - 14 kg. Their height at the shoulder can be from 23 to 30 cm. They are nomadic and range over huge areas, which for an adult male may be as large as 600km2. After a gestation period of two months, the female badger will give birth to a cub. There is a considerable difference between the sizes of the male and female Honey Badgers, with males sometimes weighing up to twice as much as females. The weight range for females is 5 to 10 kg, while males range from 9 to 14 kg. Their head-and-body length ranges from 60 to 102 cm, plus a tail of 16 to 30 cm. They are heavily built, with a broad head, small eyes, virtually no external ears, and a relatively blunt snout. In a 2002 National Geographic documentary titled "Snake killers: Honey badgers of the Kalahari" a honey badger named Kleinman is documented killing a Puff Adder(One of the most dangerous snakes). During the fight he put to kill the snake, the honey badger was bitten by the snake, so he collapses beside the snake but after a time period of about 2 hours he gets up and eats rest of the snake and resumes his journey. So interestingly the snake venom doesn't hurt him much. |
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