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Honey Badgers

Ranked #592 in Pets & Animals, #17,287 overall

Introducing The Honey Badger - The Most Fearless Animal in the World!

The Honey Badger, also known as the Ratel (if you speak Afrikaans) or Mellivora capensis (if you're a scientist) is described as the "most fearless animal in the world" by the Guinness Book of Records (2002 edition).

In this lens you will find out how they have earned this tremendous title and why they are one of the most amazing creatures on the planet.

NOTE: This lens is NOT about Scottish music band "The Honey Badgers"! It is about one of god's creatures.

Lens of the Day - October 5th 2008

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Quickly jump around the lens

  1. Quotes About Honey Badgers
  2. The Honey Badger on the Big Screen
  3. Get to Know the Honey Badger
  4. The Honey Badger Hoodie
  5. Honey Badgers in the News
  6. The Honey Badger & The Honey Guide Bird
  7. The Honey Badger Shop
  8. Ratels of the South African National Defence Force
  9. The Plumber's Tale
  10. An Easy Day for Mr Honey Badger
  11. The Honey Badger Friendly Initiative
  12. Summary
  13. More Amazon Stuff
  14. So, what do you think about Honey Badgers?
  15. Drop me a line
  16. A sneaky backlink

Quotes About Honey Badgers

What folk think

To begin, I have compiled a list of quotes from people talking about Honey Badgers. It seems I am not the only one who holds deep admiration and respect for this marvellous beast.

  • "Such a cute name for a ferocious animal." - Portable_ebay

  • "This animal is incredible. I just wonder, will bullets kill it? " - CubicleJoe

  • "It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey." - Some Iraqi

  • "Crazy critters they are!" - Beempa

  • "What a thug the Honey Badger is, and absolutely fearless." - ChristiannaGarrett-Martin

  • "Wow those things can do some damage." - ParentCoachGTD

  • "I would not want to run into a badger when he was angry!" - ArtByLinda

  • "are these available as pets in the uk without a licence if so who sells them?" - micky b

The Honey Badger on the Big Screen

Moving Pictures

It is said that a picture tells a thousand words, therefore a video must tell over a billion! So, what better way to introduce the Honey Badger to you than by showing them in action on the Savannah.

My favourite bits are at the following time codes:

  • 00:12 - A Honey Badger chasing a big cat about five times it's size.

  • 00:34 - A Honey Badger climbs to the top of a tree to attack a cobra.

  • 01:30 - A Honey Badger eating larvae from an African Bee's nest ignoring multiple stings from the insect.

  • 02:24 - A Honey Badger snatching food from the mouth of a snake (and afterwards killing and eating the snake).

  • 02:57 - A snake poisons a Honey Badger with it's venom. The Honey Badger has a bit of a lie down, then continues on it's way!

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Get to Know the Honey Badger

The Facts

I was going to call this section 'Interesting Facts' but looking at some of the information, I think the word 'interesting' would be a misnomer. The bullet-list below pads out what you already know about Honey Badgers with some finer details:


  • Honey Badgers live in Africa and the Middle East.

  • They are between 75cm and 130cm long and stand 20cm to 30cm tall. They weigh between 5.5Kg and 14Kg.

  • Honey Badgers are strong and stocky with small eyes and little internal ears that fold out when needed.

  • Honey Badgers can devour a whole snake in 15 minutes (lifted from Wikipedia, so I don't know how big the snake was!)

  • Honey Badgers are solitary creatures.

  • Honey Badgers are nocturnal during the Summer and diurnal (active day & night) during the winter.

  • Honey Badgers live in a variety of dens, which includes burrows they dig themselves, robbing other animals of their homes, crevices, caves and below tree roots.

  • In captivity, Honey Badgers have been known to live for over 26 years.

  • Honey Badgers have such a fearsome reputation that very few animals will attack them.

  • According to folklore, the Honey Badgers first target in an attack is the testicles of their opponent.

The Honey Badger Hoodie

Look great, keep warm

honey badger hoodieStay warm this winter, look awesome and be the envy of your friends with this fantasterastic Honey Badger Hoodie.

It features a great picture of our lil friend letting a snake know who's boss.

Go, Honey Badger, Go!

You can find more cool Honey Badger Merchandise here.

Honey Badgers in the News

A new military weapon?

Honey Badger

Before I continue, I'd just like to mention that due to a lack of decent Honey Badger imagery in the public domain, I drew my own picture of one (above). What do you think? Great, huh?

Back in the Summer of '07, reports surfaced of strange man-eating bear-like creatures attacking the populace of Basra, Iraq.

Rumours quickly circulated that they had been released into the area by the British army to keep the locals at bay. One lady described them thus:

"It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey."

A few were captured by local farmers and identified by experts as our notorious friend, the Honey Badger.

Read the full story on the BBC News website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm

The Honey Badger & The Honey Guide Bird

What a team!

A young Honey Badger learns how to hunt with the help of his "Fairy Godmother", The Honey Guide Bird.
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The Honey Badger Shop

Get your authentic Honey Badger merchandise from THE HONEY BADGER SHOP (or don't).

A big thank you goes out to Eugene D'Amico who is the only person to of ever bought Honey Badger merchandise. Thanks Eugene ;)
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Ratels of the South African National Defence Force

Did you know?

The South African National Force named their Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), the Ratel, after the Honey Badger.

This is due to the Honey Badger's reputation as a ferocious fighter.

The Plumber's Tale

Fact or Drunken Drivel?

A friend of mine told me a story about Honey Badgers one drunken evening down the pub. This is his tale:

A friend of his has a friend who has a brother who works in a zoo in the South of England where they have a few honey badgers. One evening, two zoo-hands visited the honey badger enclosure to feed them.

Upon arriving, they thought it strange that the honey badgers were nowhere to be seen. Usually they'd come out of their burrows at dusk to await their food however on this particular day, just an eerie silence filled the air.

Worried that the honey badgers had escaped, the more experienced member of staff entered the enclosure to investigate.

As he made his way past one of the entrances to the badger's den, as quick as a flash a honey badger popped out and gripped it's teeth around the bottom of the bloke's trousers and tried to pull him into the small hole. No sooner had this happened when the rest of the honey badgers piled out of their hiding places and joined the attack.

Fortunately, the other zoo-keeper had a tranquillizer gun and shot the honey badgers but not before the guy that had been attacked had lost two fingers and suffered multiple lacerations and bite-marks all over his body.

Is there any truth in this story?

We may never know...

An Easy Day for Mr Honey Badger

You know those days when you get up and can't be bothered to do anything...

The honey badger comes out of its hole, takes a walk round, and goes back in.
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The Honey Badger Friendly Initiative

The Honey Badger Friendly Initiative is a scheme in South Africa that aims "to minimize the conflict between badgers and commercial beekeepers in South Africa and provide positive incentives for "Badger-Friendly " beekeeping."

I would really like to see a "conflict" between a bee-keeper and a Honey Badger. I'm sure the Honey Badger would win, however according to the Executive Summary

"The entirely unnecessary, illegal and inhumane killing of honey badgers by a minority of commercial beekeepers is receiving widespread and increasing media and public attention."

Summary

Why I Think Honey Badgers Rock

You now know as much as me about Honey Badgers.

Actually, not quite...there's one more story I want to share with you.

I've not seen the footage, but apparently somewhere out there on the Internet there's a fight between a leopard and Honey Badger, in which the leopard takes a WHOLE HOUR to kill the Honey Badger.

"Not so great", you may respond but when I tell you that a leopard is around four times the weight of a Honey Badger and this particular Honey Badger was a toothless, old female with one blind eye it puts it in a whole new perspective!

More Amazon Stuff

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So, what do you think about Honey Badgers?

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Drop me a line

I'd love to hear what you think about Honey Badgers, so feel free to drop me a message using the comments box below.

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A sneaky backlink

For an experiment I'm doing (please ignore)

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