Honey Badger Conducts a Quick Kill

The notorious ratel species has the confidence of a lion, the personality the size of a giant pachyderm and the cuteness of a bunny rabbit. The honey badger is probably one of the most loved, misunderstood and revered little creature of the safari world. It’s built quite a name for itself online and videos of this small carnivore quickly go viral. As a matter of fact, honey badgers are pretty trendy at the moment. Ranger Michael Beard filmed this creature digging up a few edible treasures!

Honey Badger Africa on Foot

So, here’s what we know about honey badgers and our first hand experience of dealing with them at Africa on Foot and nThambo Tree Camp.

Get to know the real deal about honey badgers:

  • As the night settles in and guests have finished dining, it’s a tradition to retire to the boma area where stories are exchanged around the campfire. Often, a rough scuttling can be heard around the corner and in the vicinity of the kitchen. The honey badgers sense and smell when dinner is finished, so they often scurry down to see what they can destroy! They’re relentless and can even open steel doors with their raven like claws.
  • In this video we see the honey badger using its claws in a rather ferocious manner. They have a habit of eating bee larvae and honey (that thick skin of theirs is immune to bee stings!) but in this case the badger was probably digging up insects or spiders. Honey badgers will also eat an array of small animals, grubs and snakes.
  • If threatened, this ratel species will emit a foul smelling secretion from their anal glands which deters predators from approaching. Interestingly en0ugh, the colouring and coat of the honey badger can easily be mistaken for that of a skunk. It is thought that these markings warn predators that they possess a chemical weapon – which they’re not afraid to use!
  • Honey badgers are famous for their brazen, nonchalant attitude. They’re quite happy to walk through a pride of lions, attack a cobra (they simply sleep off the venom) and approach lodges at night – just out of curiosity.
  • Although cute looking, honey badgers are not afraid of attacking. They’ll scurry away at first but if under threat they will fight for survival and defend themselves against an entire army. Brave, fearless and not to be approached without caution!

Here’s the video – we hope you enjoy watching this fella in action!