Honey badger

Honey badgers eat lots of different foods.

They catch mice, snakes, frogs and birds. They break into bees' nests to eat honey and baby bees.

Honey badgers mostly eat meat. They catch rodents, snakes, birds and frogs, and they eat eggs. They also eat fruit, roots and bulbs. They break into bees' nests to eat the honey and the bee grubs inside.

Many books say a bird called the greater honeyguide leads honey badgers to bees' nests and then eats the leftovers. Animal Diversity Web says it has not been observed in the wild and there is no evidence from studies that it really happens.

The honey badger is an opportunistic, mainly carnivorous forager. In the southern Kalahari, prey ranged from 2 to 2,000 grams; small mammals made up about 80 percent of the diet from September to December, and large snakes 58 percent from January to April. Males ate about 1.3 kilograms a day and females about 0.9. Fruit, roots, bulbs, bee larvae, honey and, when food is scarce, carrion add to the diet.

Britannica describes ratels finding honey by following the greater honeyguide, a bird that then feeds on the remains of the nest. ADW, however, reports that although this partnership is often described in books and media, there is no empirical evidence for it and it has not been observed in the wild.

Honey badgers usually live alone.

They walk a long way to find food. Grown-ups make loud, scratchy calls to each other.

Honey badgers usually live alone and travel a long way every day to look for food. In the Kalahari, females walk about 10 kilometers a day, and males up to 27 kilometers.

Britannica describes them as nocturnal, but Animal Diversity Web says they can be active by day, by night or at dawn and dusk. They leave smelly marks near their burrows. Adults make loud, grating calls a bit like a high-pitched bark, and cubs squeal and whine when they need their mother.

Honey badgers are mostly solitary and nomadic. Kalahari home ranges average 541 square kilometers for adult males, 126 for females and 151 for young males, and overlap extensively without territorial defense; a dominant male's range may overlap those of up to 13 females.

Activity is described as nocturnal by Britannica, while ADW lists diurnal, nocturnal and crepuscular activity. Communication uses scent (urine and anal glands near burrows), loud grating calls and the distress squeals of young. Rival males perform a ritualized dance of whole-body rotations, the dominant male moving most.

Honey badgers live in many countries, but there are not many in any one place.

Some farmers and beekeepers try to keep them away. Each one needs a lot of space to find food.

The IUCN lists the honey badger as Least Concern because it lives over a huge area and eats many kinds of food. But its numbers are going down, and it is not common anywhere.

The biggest danger comes from people. Farmers and beekeepers sometimes kill honey badgers with traps and poison to protect animals and beehives, and some are hunted for traditional medicines. Because each honey badger roams so far, they are hard to keep track of and protect.

The IUCN lists Mellivora capensis as Least Concern with a decreasing population, citing its broad range and generalist diet. ADW notes that it is protected in some range countries and that Botswana's population is listed on CITES Appendix III.

Human activity is probably the largest threat. Badgers are killed, intentionally or not, by traps and poison set by livestock farmers and beekeepers, and are hunted for traditional medicine. Very large home ranges make monitoring and protection difficult.