HONEY BADGERS   

The honey badger, better known in South Africa as a Ratel, is a charming but dangerous, and seemingly fearless omnivore.

At Vergelegen, the badgers have been photographed by static camera at an altitude of about 470 metres above sea level. In the same area, one will also find spotted genet, caracal, leopard and Cape hare. They mainly appear during the hours of darkness and most have been photographed singly although, on one occasion, three were caught on camera. 

The badgers show great interest in the camera, and on one picture we see them gathered around one of the cameras carrying out what looks like a rather detailed examination of the camera itself!

Conservationist Gerald Wright feels that Vergelegen's extensive biodiversity and alien vegetation clearance programme contributed greatly to the reappearance of the honey badgers in the area.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) have a remarkably loose skin that allows them to turn and twist on their attackers when held;
• Their skin is very hard to penetrate and is 6 mm thick around the neck, thick enough to resist several machete blows;
• Honey badgers are intelligent animals and are one of few species capable of using tools. In the 1997 documentary series Land of the Tiger a honey badger in India was filmed making use of a tool; the animal rolled a log and stood on it to reach a kingfisher fledgling stuck in the roots trailing from the ceiling in an underground cave;
• Despite their name, honey badgers are primarily carnivorous animals that eat small rodents, scorpions, birds, eggs, insects, lizards, snakes (even large and venomous cobras), tortoises, frogs and carrion. They also eat berries, roots, and bulbs;
• The honey badger possesses an anal pouch. The smell of the pouch is reportedly "suffocating", and may assist in calming bees when raiding beehives.

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