Colours of Wildlife: Honey Badger
Created | Updated Aug 10, 2014
Honey Badger, or Ratel
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
Today I bring you one of the most amazing of mammals, the Honey Badger, or Ratel, Mellivora capensis! The Afrikaans name probably refers to the rattling roar it gives when disturbed. The scientific name means 'honey eater from the Cape
. This species occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa as well as in Arabia, southwest Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most ratels are black below and white or grey above; in some the back is dark grey with a thin crescent of white marking it off from the dark underparts; a few ratels are all-black. Ratels occur in almost all habitats, from rainforest to savannah to cold, grassy steppe and subdesert.
Despite the name, the honey badger is not closely related to Eurasian or American badgers. They are distant relatives, belonging to the same carnivore family, but to distinct subfamilies. Honey badgers are closer relatives to weasels, martens, ferrets, polecats and wolverines. They're still distinct enough to be put in their own subfamily.
Small but Tough
The ratel is renowned for being the bravest, toughest animal in Africa. They are said to be so ferocious that lions will not try to kill them. They will indeed attack lions if provoked, as well as buffaloes, elephants and anything else. In turn, pretty much everything is afraid of a ratel. It is even thought that baby cheetahs, who have large white manes on their upper bodies, have evolved this colouration to resemble ratels, gaining protection thereby.
Ratels are not quite invulnerable, but nearly so. They have a very solid and compact build. The ratel's body is fairly long, but its limbs short and sturdy. The front feet have exceptionally long and strong claws. The tail is quite short. The total length can reach 1 m/ a bit over a yard, and the bodyweight 16 kg/35 lbs. A ratel has a short neck and a low, very hard skull with a short, blunt snout. Inside the skull, it has one of the proportionally largest brains of any carnivore. The teeth are strong, but the canine teeth are comparatively short. Still, a ratel has a powerful bite. Its entire physique is powerful. Ratels have been known to rip their way out of steel cages, turning around and destroying the cages afterward.
Over its powerful muscles the ratel has thick and tough but loose skin. It is thickest over the neck, where fighting male ratels often grab each other. But the skin over the rest of the body is thick also. This gives it protection against the stings and bites of insects, honeybees especially. The skin might provide protection against the bites of poisonous snakes, and even porcupine quills don't easily penetrate it. The honey badger's small eyes are closed by thick eyelids, and it has no protruding external ears. The ears can therefore not easily be damaged while fighting. The looseness of a ratel's skin also makes it hard for a predator to grab hold of it. When caught by the skin of its back, the ratel can turn around in its skin and attack its attacker with its teeth and claws.
Another adaptation that the ratel has, is a pouch on its backside that contains a vile-smelling liquid, similar to that of a skunk. (Ratels are not close relatives of American skunks, though.) This can be squirted out at an attacker. It also seems to be useful when badgers raid honey bee nests; the fumes seem to calm the bees down like the smokes used by beekeepers.
In line with some common notions around toughness, the male ratel has surprisingly large testes in proportion to its size! But in fact we don't really know the reason for this oversized equipment.
In South Africa we had a military armoured vehicle called a Ratel, in homage to the toughness of this critter. There was also a viral honey badger internet video made from National Geographic footage. There was also a persistent honey badger that was a running joke throughout the movie 'The Gods Must Be Crazy II'.
A Fondness for Honey
As the name indicates, honey badgers love honey! In Africa there are bees that nest in the ground as well as the ones that nest in trees. Ratels can climb trees and can also dig into the earth with their powerful front claws. As noted, the thick skin and anal secretions help protect them against the stinging bees. The ratel will consume as much honey as it can, and will carry pieces of honeycomb away and bury them for later.
One thing that has been said of ratels is probably a myth. The story goes that a small bird called a honeyguide has learnt to locate bees' nests, and then guide the badger towards them by a peculiar chirping and fluttering display. The ratel will then tear into the nest, dislodging pieces of honeycomb, which the honeyguide will then be able to eat along with the bee grubs in the cells. While this behaviour of honeyguide birds has indeed been noted with humans, so far there is no clear evidence that ratels are clever enough to work with the birds in this way.
High Intelligence
But that doesn't mean honey badgers are not clever! They may be among the most intelligent of all carnivores. They have been seen to use tools in the wild … something witnessed in only a few animal species so far. One has used a log to stand on, rolling it into just the right place, to reach a young kingfisher chick. In South Africa, they've been filmed devising extremely ingenious ways to escape from enclosures. If these are not hoaxed, then honey badgers are actually incredibly intelligent, comparable to great apes that have learnt how to pick the locks of their cages.
No Fuss about Food
Other than honey, ratels eat almost anything else they can get – although they only rarely eat plant foods like fruits and berries, roots and bulbs. Most of the time they eat small critters: small rodents and birds, lizards, spiders, frogs, scorpions, dung beetles, and termites. Many of these things they catch by digging them out of their burrows and nests. They eat turtles and tortoises out of their shells. On occasion they catch fish. Ratels will catch and kill venomous snakes and pythons. Ratels will also scavenge, sometimes driving larger predators away from their kills. In India they've been observed digging up human corpses! They hunt by trotting along with a rolling gait, their forefeet angled inwards, using mostly their noses to sniff and detect possible sources of food. They usually hunt during the day, but where humans persecute them heavily, they are mainly nocturnal.
Threats
Ratels are not universally loved. They raid poultry houses and beehives, and on occasion even attack humans. Despite being very hard to kill, they are not immune to gunshots or poison. They are also susceptible to diseased carried by domestic cats and dogs. For these reasons ratels are dwindling in some parts of their range. But overall, because of their immense total distribution, they are not in danger of extinction.
