Why is honey badger popular
This key adaptation gives them the ability to slither out of a predators grip. When a threatening animal bites or tries to grab and hold the honey badger, the badger can twist and turn out of its skin leaving the predator with nothing but a mouthful of the rubbery epidermis. At the same moment, the honey badger can twist around and give a mean bite or almighty swipe with its oversized claws to its enemy.
One of the main reasons for them coming up trumps in most fights that they may look outsized in. Using their long claws, honey badgers dig burrows to rest in, almost daily. If needed, they can dig themselves a hiding hole in a matter of minutes and use their natural excavation skills to capture prey underground. Honey Badgers, however, break the mould. So intelligent that they have been known to use tools, as documented in a famous video online from a research centre in South Africa, it revealed the use of sticks, rakes, mud and stones to aid their escape.
This remarkable behaviour has also been witnessed in the wild with the likes of rocks being used to smash open ostrich eggs and poking sticks into termite mounds. The jaw and the bite force are up there with the strongest, so strong that it can almost never be dislocated. If a honey badger bites into something, there is not much that can be done to force it to let go. They have no visible ears, instead their ears are tucked away within the thick skin that is on the back of their head.
The obvious benefit of this adaptation is that they are not easily bitten or clawed off in a fight and perhaps aiding the burrowing capabilities by not having awkward protruding shapes getting snagged as they go. Despite the lack of visible lobes and lugs, they still have a surprisingly good sense of hearing along with their strong sense of smell and keen diurnal and nocturnal sight. It has been known that honey badgers go for anything dangling they can easily reach, most especially between the legs.
This action has been reported many times and is a tale that is often told around campfires of the African bush when the discussion inevitably goes on to the more gruesome tales. After the castration of its prey, they will potentially wait for their victim to bleed out before commencement of the feast. Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help.
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Travel A road trip in Burgundy reveals far more than fine wine. Travel My Hometown In L. Travel The last artists crafting a Thai royal treasure. Subscriber Exclusive Content. Their long fore claws are used to dig burrows that can be 3 meters long and approximately 1. These tunnels or chambers are used as a resting place for the honey badgers. Since they are fearless creatures they sometimes take over burrows dug out by yellow mongoose, springhares, Cape foxes and bat-eared foxes.
Pic: Simon Gorta. The Greater Honeyguide birds have an opportunistic relationship with honey badgers as it has been observed to feed on the scraps from the bee hives left behind by the honey badgers Begg et al a.
A study conducted at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park reported that although previously suggested that honey badgers are omnivorous species, observations proved that they switched to consuming fruit such as tsamma melons mainly to obtain moisture in a highly water-scarce environment rather than use it as a food source.
The species is considered to be a mainly carnivorous species, as they were mostly observed to consume small invertebrates and vertebrates Begg, Successful foraging and locating prey are through the use of their sense of smell. Even when well fed, honey badgers search for food on a daily basis, which cause some experts to label them as wasteful foragers. They search for prey in previously marked scent trails, within burrows and smell by lifting their noses up in the air, in the direction of the scent Begg Using their long fore claws they trap their prey inside the burrows by barricading the entrance and digging with its hind paws another entrance to catch the prey.
They demonstrate high levels of polygamy having more than one mate , which usually lasts for about two weeks and males are highly systematic in their approach. They maximise their breeding frequency by sharing the same movement range with the females and by moving faster than females as they cover larger areas, having at least 13 female mates in their area of occupancy. Similarly, females are also polygamous as they can mate with multiple males when they are receptive, but they do not reproduce each year.
Competing for receptive females occurs within the burrows, their encounters consisting of scent-marking demonstrating their hierarchical social structures usually between sexually mature males. Unlike mature males, young males are mainly influenced by availability of food and then by the frequency of receptive females.
Sexual maturity is not well known, but experts suggests that for males it is approximately two to three years of age, and for females it is 12—16 months; indicating that male sexual maturity is reached at a later stage when they are fully independent whereas females disperse immediately upon independence Begg et al.
Females usually carry one or two young per term. Honey badgers are uniparental, the female is the only parent responsible for the young cubs. When the young den cubs are born, they are reared in the females burrow and when the mother forages for prey they usually carry their young in the mouth Rosevear Claws are fully formed within four weeks and eyes are fully opened at approximately 33 days.
Teeth start appearing around 36 days and are fully developed at approximately three months Kingdon Cubs remain with their mother for a period of 12—16 months before they reach maturity and have well developed hunting, climbing as well as proficient digging skills. Honey badgers provide a useful ecosystem service in agriculture because they feed extensively on rodents and arthropods who are considered to be agricultural pests Smithers ; Begg et al.
However, they are also considered to be a pest by many beekeepers. Beehive damage by honey badgers is a significant threat to beekeeping productivity. Persecution of honey badgers by beekeepers has been recorded since the early s.
Begg b found that the honey badgers caused damage with a monetary value of about R per annum in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga alone. Beekeepers retaliate by shooting, poisoning and gin trapping honey badgers, accelerating the rate of population decline. Since honey badgers are scavengers, they are also indirectly killed through poisoning. Furthermore, honey badgers are also indirectly killed by control programmes targeting other species such as black-backed jackals and caracal.
The killing of the honey badgers and reduction to the population size was also influenced by harvest for use in traditional medicine. The species is used in the preparation of remedies used as protective charm for possessors and hunting dogs.
Honey badgers are equipped with large scent glands that play a role in territorial marking and also used a defence mechanism Carter Females rarely interact with each other, thus demonstrate unrestrained terrestrial behaviour in protecting their territory by urinating in previously foraged area.
Males, having a larger area of occupancy or home range, signify inter-sexual territory since they share overlapping ranges with females. Honey badgers have tough, loose skin allowing them to free themselves from predators and to also manoeuvre through small spaces.
Honey badgers contribute a provisioning service to the environment in that they help regulate agricultural pests such as rodents and arthropods by being generalist feeders Smithers ; Begg et al.
Threats that are facing the species included persecution by beekeepers, unintentional poisoning and hunting for both bush meat and traditional medicine use Carter Increasingly, honey badgers are being hunted as trophies. The lack of legislation enforcement for the protection of the species and high number of honey badgers reported to have been killed by beekeepers in particular has led to Botswana and Ghana, the only two countries, to list the honey badgers as an Appendix III species on the CITES list making it mandatory to have a permit for export and import of the species.
The combination of a single offspring, late sexual maturity and long birthing interval affects population propagation and the survival of honey badgers by having a special significance in the success of conservation programmes Begg The honey badger belongs to the weasel family Scientific name: Mustelidae , related to species such as skunks Genus: Mephitis , otters Genus: Ictonyx , ferrets Genus: Mustela , and other badgers.
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