Honey Badger: lions and leopards are afraid of it (13 photos)

The Honey Badger is small in stature, but his appearance knows no weakness. His body is dense and low, as if carved from black granite. His back is the color of ash, as if all the dust of countless battles has settled on his skin. His paws are clawed hammers, created to crush and subjugate. His eyes are not the brilliance of a predator, but the coldness of an observer: he sees everything and knows much.







Mr. Honey Badger, teach us to be as cool as you are!

From the deserts of Namibia to the jungles of India, he is feared and admired. The Honey Badger walks the earth like a warlike king collecting his tribute. He takes whatever he wants: lizards, hares, vipers, honey, other people's prey - everything becomes his meal. Even big cats give him their breakfast, until the Master asks for their lives instead.





I heard leopard print is back in fashion. Take off your skin!

Let the Honey Badger be hit by a storm of bee stings, a rain of porcupine quills, buffalo hooves, leopard claws, or lion fangs. Lady Evolution created the perfect berserker warrior in the Honey Badger, giving him two abilities. The first is insensitivity to pain. Blows, cuts, and wounds are unable to break the raging will to win. The Honey Badger was forged by eternal flame to attack and withstand a blow from a beast 10 times larger than him. Young predators who meet the Overlord for the first time on their path sometimes see him as easy prey and enter the battle. But they almost never emerge victorious.



So, I don't get it, are you subtly hinting that I shouldn't eat you?

The body of the Honey Badger hears pain, but does not listen: its voice is dampened by thick skin and a layer of fat underneath. The beast's skin is both armor and weapon at the same time: incredibly strong, but exceptionally elastic. A finger thick, up to 6 millimeters, it is four times stronger than human skin and several times more flexible.



Now get away from my prey! Or you will be next!

A fool who seizes the Honey Badger will regret his actions, because the retribution will be a hundred times stronger. The Lord wriggles inside his own skin and brings down his wrath on the enemy. He grabs the offender by the face, eyes, nose - anywhere. A flexible spine, steel muscles and trap-like jaws know no mercy. The bite is so strong that the beast splits a turtle shell with the same ease as a chicken egg.



He opens a turtle like a pistachio.

The second gift of evolution is immunity to poison. Cobras and mambas - the most deadly snakes in Africa - are just a meal for the Honey Badger. A quarter of the Lord's entire diet consists of snake meat. And all thanks to one small mutation in DNA, which turns poison into water.



Is that all your poison? My character would be even more toxic!

The toxin of most creepy crawlies targets nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. These receptors are located in the nervous system and muscles. They transmit signals that the body needs to move, the lungs need to breathe, and the heart needs to beat. But snake toxins block their work, which causes respiratory paralysis, circulatory arrest, damage to the nervous system and death. So, the poison does not work on the Honey Badger. Its acetylcholine receptors repel the poison molecules with the help of the amino acid arginine. The black mamba's deadly bite will only make the Overlord sleep. But not for long: as soon as the Honey Badger wakes up, he will rise and finish off the enemy.



While you are eating pasta, the Honey Badger is preparing brutal snake pasta.

The Honey Badger does not always get what he wants with brute force: he is famous for his cunning and intelligence. Thus, the Overlord made an alliance with a small bird, the honey guide. She shows where she has found a hive, the Overlord destroys it and shares the spoils with the bird. The honey badger takes the honey, and the honey guide takes the honeycombs and larvae.



Ugh, you smell of weakness!

Even human cunning cannot break the spirit and will of the Lord. Keeping the beast in captivity is quite a challenge. The Honey Badger will seek a way out of any confinement with sharp claws and an equally sharp mind. The most famous escapee Honey Badger is Stoffle. He escaped from a wildlife rehabilitation center in South Africa several dozen times!



Freedom for the Honey Badgers!

The glory of a fearless warrior goes far ahead of the fighter himself. So some animals do not just bow before him - they mimic him. Cheetah cubs are very interestingly colored: dark sides and white fur on the back look very similar to the Honey Badger from afar. Thanks to this, lions and hyenas avoid the kittens, no one wants to run into the wrath of the Lord just like that.



Such Honey Badgers can only kill with cuteness!

The Honey Badger does not gather a retinue, but chooses a companion himself. His mating rituals are far from tender: fighting is the only prelude. But in the eyes of the Lord, this is not cruelty, but a test. Only she who can withstand the onslaught of his libido is worthy of sharing his lair. Having chosen his lady of the paw and heart, he secludes himself with her in a hole underground for several hours - and sometimes even days. All this time - an endless fight, struggle and mating, in which strength, instinct and primal passion are intertwined.



A bite on a favorite thigh is sacred regardless of the species!

After 2 months, one, rarely two cubs are born from the fiery union. Nature itself does not dare to give the world more Honey Badgers. In a deep hole underground, the female teaches her heirs to live without fear. For many months, the young Lord will not leave his mother. He will hone his skills, accumulate strength and greedily absorb new knowledge. Only after a year will he be ready to leave his mother to find his own path. The path of one who does not bow to anyone and never retreats.



The future ruler of the black continent is so cute while he sleeps!