The Honey Badger: The Scourge of Bees
Ah, the Honey Badger. We go way back. From the moment I watched a low-def documentary from the National Geographic Channel, to the time I saw one in a zoo and it went at me like I was fat hive of honey. I freaked out.
It was a wild honey badger that was injured and being taken care of by my brother, who works in a zoo. It was accidentally run over by a patrolling jeep along the desert in the sub-Saharan part of Southern Africa. When the guys who ran over it brought it to the zoo in Johannesburg, they felt bad for its injuries, albeit being minor ones, but the zoo was ecstatic about having one from the wild. They are usually nocturnal and solitary so it's quite difficult to see one from the wild.
Honey Badgers eat practically anything that moves, from lizards to rodents to birds. However, it got its name because it would often attack bee hives to drink the honey. It's a scourge to bees because they really like honey and they destroy the hive completely. Since it's usually nocturnal and bees don't really see well at night, the bees are completely unprepared. Though they do sense vibrations, they're only truly active in the daytime because it's too cold for them to go out at night.
Honey is an important food source for honey badgers because it's a great source of energy to fuel its nightly foraging. They would do almost everything to get at the honey in hives. They have even developed certain characteristics that allow them to plunder and destroy hives without too much of a hassle.
They're coats are very thick, with a layer of fur covering a shorter layer. The skin is also quite tough. However, this does not make them completely invulnerable to stings. There are still tender spots on their bodies that can be stung. These include the tongue, the nose and the anus. If honey badgers are stung multiple times in these areas, the pain may be enough to deter them from feeding on the honey further.
But what is probably their most amazing adaptation is their apparent immunity to venom. We're not just talking about bees but venomous snakes as well. It is an interesting adaptation that fascinates anti-venom researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
After bitten by a cobra or a snake with a neurotoxin, the honey badger seems to die for a while. It has difficulty breathing, then it eventually stops moving. It seems like the snake won, but after a few minutes or hours, it wakes up as if nothing's happened. Then it goes around, looking for other animals to hunt and bees to piss off.
The honey badger has amazing anti-venom adaptations. You, on the other hand, don't. There are plenty of critters out there that can sting you. Very much related to bees, you might also encounter WASPS. If you have a wasp infestation, or if you want to know how to distinguish them from bees, check out http://www.waspcatcher.org/€">WaspCatchers.org, where you get useful information about this bugs and how to deal with them.
It was a wild honey badger that was injured and being taken care of by my brother, who works in a zoo. It was accidentally run over by a patrolling jeep along the desert in the sub-Saharan part of Southern Africa. When the guys who ran over it brought it to the zoo in Johannesburg, they felt bad for its injuries, albeit being minor ones, but the zoo was ecstatic about having one from the wild. They are usually nocturnal and solitary so it's quite difficult to see one from the wild.
Honey Badgers eat practically anything that moves, from lizards to rodents to birds. However, it got its name because it would often attack bee hives to drink the honey. It's a scourge to bees because they really like honey and they destroy the hive completely. Since it's usually nocturnal and bees don't really see well at night, the bees are completely unprepared. Though they do sense vibrations, they're only truly active in the daytime because it's too cold for them to go out at night.
Honey is an important food source for honey badgers because it's a great source of energy to fuel its nightly foraging. They would do almost everything to get at the honey in hives. They have even developed certain characteristics that allow them to plunder and destroy hives without too much of a hassle.
They're coats are very thick, with a layer of fur covering a shorter layer. The skin is also quite tough. However, this does not make them completely invulnerable to stings. There are still tender spots on their bodies that can be stung. These include the tongue, the nose and the anus. If honey badgers are stung multiple times in these areas, the pain may be enough to deter them from feeding on the honey further.
But what is probably their most amazing adaptation is their apparent immunity to venom. We're not just talking about bees but venomous snakes as well. It is an interesting adaptation that fascinates anti-venom researchers and pharmaceutical companies.
After bitten by a cobra or a snake with a neurotoxin, the honey badger seems to die for a while. It has difficulty breathing, then it eventually stops moving. It seems like the snake won, but after a few minutes or hours, it wakes up as if nothing's happened. Then it goes around, looking for other animals to hunt and bees to piss off.
The honey badger has amazing anti-venom adaptations. You, on the other hand, don't. There are plenty of critters out there that can sting you. Very much related to bees, you might also encounter WASPS. If you have a wasp infestation, or if you want to know how to distinguish them from bees, check out http://www.waspcatcher.org/€">WaspCatchers.org, where you get useful information about this bugs and how to deal with them.
