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Aug 6, 2009

Honey Badger spotting!



Tonight I saw two honey badgers. Sweet, goofy little things they are. So cute I say, adorable, like little bears. From afar they look a bit like a skunk, with their white stripe along their backs. Up close like a tiny little sweet adorable bear. Graham laughs at me and then informs me that:

Pound for pound this is Africa's most fearless animal despite it's size. (click here to watch a video of a badger eating a snake!) Even listed as the most fearless animal in the world. Even names so in the Guinness book of world records. You don't say! Evidently even lions fear these little sweethearts. uh huh. Graham then told me a story that he knew a guy who had a badger attach and attack the wheel of his land rover. And since these fearless warriors like honey, they've been known to terrorize the kitchens of camps with much more devastating consequences then that of a hyena or baboons. They will eat poisonous snakes, consumed in less then 15 minutes and raid bee nests, to the distaste of bee keepers.



It's tendency to attack animals much larger then itself leaves it seldom preyed upon.


But they are so cute!

Then Graham tells another story that they will even go after a bull buffalo..... you do the size comparison. But they don't go after it to eat it, just to kill it. How you ask? They bite their balls off. Yup right for the testicles. Wonder if they have more estrogen then testosterone?








In a 2002 National Geographic documentary titled "Snake killers: Honey badgers of the Kalahari", a badger was documented stealing a meal out of a puff adder's mouth and casually eating the meal in front of the hissing snake. After the meal, The badger began to hunt the puff adder, the species being one of the badger's preferred venomous snakes. He managed to kill the snake and began eating it, but then collapsed on the dead snake as he had been bitten during the struggle. After about two hours he surprisingly awoke. Once his paralysis had subsided, the badger continued with his meal and then resumed his journey.

Again, but they are ADORABLE!

As usual when we spot these less often seen smaller animals it was after the sun set and I was unable to snap a picture so here are some google images of the darlings.

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