What Is the Meanest Animal on Earth?

Diet and Habitat

• The Honey Badger receives its name from its love of raiding the larva filled combs of honey beehives, which directly creates tension between local farmers and honey badger conservation efforts. Another formidable opponent the honey badger takes on are poisonous adders and cobras. The badger's unique defense system responds to a deadly bite by collapsing the badger into a deep sleep until the venom wears off about two hours later; after which, the badger sluggishly continues to finish its meal.

Behavior

• Honey badgers are proficient diggers with claws reaching one and one-half inch and continue to grow throughout the badger's lifetime; however, both males and females commonly take over an existing den from a rabbit or mongoose each night and modifying it for size. As ferocious as the honey badgers are, females are dedicated mothers. Not only does she move her one cub to a different den every three or four days until it can walk on its own, but as the cub grows the mother continues to hunt and feed the cub up to half of her catch for a year before making the cub find its own food source.

Interesting Facts

• Along with its natural digging ability, this animal is capable of using its claws and 30 pound, dexterous body to catch scorpions, crocodiles, porcupines as well as dig into the shells of tortoises for food. Despite the fearsome growls the honey badger exhibits when raiding a beehive, it rarely becomes aggressive unless battling prey or is provoked. Some of the badgers peculiar habits is that it is nocturnal in the summer and diurnal in the winter.

Conservation Status

• The honey badger has no known natural predator; however, there are three factors that contribute to their dwindling numbers: low reproduction rate, high cub mortality rates and commercial honey producers. Because honey badgers do not form pairs, males do not have any role in rearing the offspring. As a result, females are solely responsible for the care of the single cub she produces until the cub learns to feed on its own. Over half of all honey badger cubs born die before reaching maturity. And, commercial honey farmers contribute by shooting, trapping and poisoning suspect hive raiders.