Honey badger – (Mellivora capensis)

07 Sep, 2014 - 04:09 0 Views

The Sunday News

Ulinda/Umantswane (Ndebele) Sere/tsere (Shona)
HONEY badger also known as the ratel, is a member of the Mustelidae family (weasel family). It is the only member of the genus Mellivora. They are listed in the Guinness books of World Records as the most fearless creatures in the world. These fearless creatures are very intelligent animals and one of the few known to have used tools to its benefit. Honey badger and the greater honey guide have a unique relationship. The honey guide leads the ratel to the beehive. Honey badger females are called “sows”. Male honey badgers are called “boars”. Their young ones are called “kit” or “whelp”. A honey badger group is called a “cete,” colony, set, or company.

Description
Honey badgers have a black body with a whitish hood beginning on a head and continuing in a wide stripe down the length of the body.
The legs are short but muscular and the body is very stocky, weighing in around nine kilogrammes. Honey badgers have very thick (about ¼ inches) rubbery skin, which is tough that it’s been shown to be nearly impervious to traditionally made arrows and spears.

These fearless carnivores’ skins can take a full blow from sharp machete without necessarily cutting the skin all the way through. More, practically, this skin helps protect the honey badger from the attacks of most predators.

The rubbery skin is also fairly loose, which allows it quite a bit of freedom of movement within the skin. This particularly aids it when it is being attacked by large predators and finds itself in the predators clutches.

The honey badger measures about 23 to 28 centimetres in shoulder height and 68 to 75 centimetres in body length. They possess powerful jaws and very sharp teeth, which are powerful enough to crush the tortoise shell. They resemble their distant relatives the skunk in coloration and in the possession of an anal gland.

Distribution/Habitat
The ratels are fairly distributed in some parts of Africa, the Middle East and Indian sub continent. These fearless creatures can be found mainly in dry terrains, forest, brush country but also occasionally in wetlands and grasslands.

Habit
Honey badgers usually are active around dusk and become nocturnal in places with high human population.
They are also awake during daytime hours. Their name honey badger explains their habit of eating honey that is often led to by the honey guide. The birds will then wait for the honey badger to break open the beehive and to have its fill.

Once the honey badger has left, the honey guides will fly in and eat the left over larvae and beeswax. These carnivores often lead a solitary life. However, during breeding season they have been observed to hunt together.

Honey badgers are particularly ferocious hunters and are no stranger to fights with venomous snakes. The Mellivora capensis’ are able to dig burrows up to three metres long and 1,5 meters deep into hard earth because they possess long claws that they make use of for that purpose and use them for defense when being attacked their predators.

A single tunnel ends in a chamber, which is usually bare, where the ratel rests. But when it comes to making a home, honey badgers are not afraid to use what is already available to them such as rock crevices and holes under tree roots, old termite mounds, or the dens of other animals to mention aardvarks.
Burrows made by bat-eared foxes, yellow mongooses, and springhares are also taken over by the honey badger.

They have a distinctive jog-trot when moving about leisurely.

Food
Honey badgers have a “sweet spot” for honey but will take on a variety of food items including porcupines, small crocodiles, scorpions, snakes, eggs, insects, rodents, birds, frogs, sheep and horses. These carnivores would also try to kill large mammals. Basically, if they can kill the animal the better or they would eat the dead body of the animal they would come across. They also like to taste fruits, berries, roots and melons, which along with blood from other animals, is often one of their primary source of water.
It has also been researched that snakes typically account for about half the total quantity of food consumed by these fearless creatures.

Reproduction
The gestation period is thought to be six months, although not much is known about the reproduction habits of these carnivores.
The female honey badger is left alone to give birth and raise her kit after the breeding season in September and October.
The expectant mother digs a nursery chamber and lines it with grass for her babies. After a gestation period of six to eight weeks, one to four cubs (average two) are born in April or may.

The newborn is hairless with pink skin and closed eyes. At one week of age their skin begins to change from pink to gray; two weeks later, fine grey hair begins to grow.

The familiar white stripe appears after almost a month. By the time the kit is close to three months old, it has become a perfect miniature version of its parents. Honey badgers can live to be from 20 years to 24 years of age.

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