Honey badger have a resounding nickname called “Flat-headed Brother”, also known as “Africa’s second brother”. It say that they are either seeking revenge or on their way to revenge. As long as a species provokes them, no matter how powerful it is or where it runs, honey badgers will pursue the offender to the death and will not stop until they have revenge.
Since honey badgers are so ferocious, do they have natural enemies? What animals can restrain their arrogance?
How arrogant is the honey badger?
In the movie ” The Gods Must Be Crazy “, a man accidentally kicks a honey badger and he immediately thinks something is wrong. However, the woman next to him thinks it is no big deal because it is small, but the man thinks it is dangerous.
In this movie, the honey badger’s strong desire for revenge is emphasize. In order to avenge a man who kicked it, it chases the man all the way. Even if it is extremely thirsty or is about to be burn by the sun, it will never give up on revenge.
But in fact, in real life, honey badgers not only have a strong desire for revenge, but are also very aggressive. In the wild, no matter what danger they encounter, they never retreat and always fight the enemy to the end, even if the enemy is much larger than themselves.
In Africa, there is a sanatorium that specializes in rescuing various animals. According to Brian Jones , a staff member there , once a honey badger passed through a lion’s territory and stared at the lion for a long time. As a result, the honey badger dug a hole into the lion’s territory that night, deliberately provoked the lion, and attacked the lion’s reproductive organs.
There was once a team studying honey badgers. When filming honey badgers, they prepare a protective gear, and this protective gear was design to protect the male reproductive organs.
In addition, honey badgers are solitary creatures, and only underage cubs live with their mothers. When honey badgers encounter groups of spotted hyenas on the African grasslands , they will not give in and fight against the entire group of spotted hyenas on their own. It should be note that the spotted hyena’s bite force is very strong, almost twice that of a lion, and spotted hyenas are social animals. They cannot deal with a honey badger with their numerical advantage.
However, scientists have noticed that when honey badgers fight spotted hyenas, in addition to using roars to warn the other party, their anus will also spray liquid, which is very smelly and can spread within 40 meters. According to scientists who have personally smelled the stench, it is very unbearable and will make your eyes tear up.
In Africa, honey badgers are very annoying creatures, not because of their strong attack power. Because they are too smart.
Honey badgers love honey very much and often destroy beekeepers’ beehives. Local people have come up with many ways to prevent honey badgers from stealing honey. Such as: setting up beehives in high places, so honey badgers will climb trees; setting up beehives on smooth railings, so honey badgers will use tree branches to swing onto the beehives.
Moreover, honey badgers love to destroy people’s kitchens. They have amazing bite force and can break doors and windows to enter the kitchen. Honey badgers can also skillfully open the refrigerator and find their favorite food from the refrigerator. They also rummage through the trash cans and often treat them as treasures, coming here to eat regularly every day.
Although the locals have thought of many ways to deal with honey badgers, they have all failed without exception. Honey badgers have an incredibly high IQ and they can always find ways to defeat humans, so that people can only use high voltage electricity to prevent honey badgers from approaching.
Do honey badgers have natural enemies?
Many people believe that honey badgers have no natural enemies due to their bravery and amazing fighting power. But in fact, lions, spotted hyenas, and cheetahs are all their natural enemies.
We say that the lion was attack by the honey badger because it made eye contact with the honey badger. But in fact, the next day, the honey badger provoked the lion again, and this time the lion bit it. If it were not for the timely rescue of humans, the honey badger would probably have died.
In addition, although a single honey badger has fought off groups of spotted hyenas. When a population of spotted hyenas really wants to eliminate the honey badgers. The honey badgers are likely to be knocked down by them.
In the wild, many honey badgers are defeat and killed by these large carnivores.
Why are honey badgers so arrogant?
For most small creatures, running away may be the best solution when encountering a strong carnivore. However, honey badgers choose to fight hard. They never admit defeat and never retreat so much. So that some people say: “Whether Africa is in chaos or not, the flat-headed ones have the final say.”
So why are honey badgers so arrogant?
In fact, there is a reason why honey badgers are so arrogant. First of all, they are almost immune to snake venom. If they are bitten by a poisonous snake, they only need to rest for a night to recover. That is why 1/4 of their food is poisonous snakes.
In addition, the honey badger has very sharp teeth and claws, and its agility allows it to move freely. When carnivores want to hunt them, they will quickly drill down from the bottom of their bodies and bite their genitals in time.
Moreover, honey badgers have strong attack power and very strong perseverance. They will never retreat unless they are kill, so large carnivores rarely provoke them. After all, the energy consumed in preying on them is much greater than that consumed in preying on herbivores.
But if the honey badgers dare to provoke them, or the lions are too hungry, the lions will teach them a lesson in minutes.
