Honey Badger
The honey badger, known across southern Africa as the ratel, occurs throughout Namibia and is seen by very few visitors. It stands around 30 centimetres at the shoulder, weighs 9 to 16 kilograms, and is among the most powerful African carnivores for its size. It can dig a burrow into hard ground in about ten minutes and covers more than 30 kilometres in a day.
A Small Animal With an Outsized Reputation
Mellivora capensis is black with a grey white saddle across the back and a face that looks disarmingly puppyish until you watch it work.
Males weigh 9 to 16 kilograms and females 5 to 10, with mean weights across studies clustering around 9. That is smaller than most people picture, and it makes what the animal does more striking rather than less.
The reputation rests on refusal to back down. Honey badgers attack almost any species when escape is impossible, and there are credible accounts of them repelling lion and hyena. Their skin is thick and loose enough that bee stings, porcupine quills and animal bites rarely penetrate, and the looseness lets a held animal twist round and bite whatever is holding it.
They are also intelligent, with documented tool use, and highly adaptable. They are naturally active in daylight during winter, and will switch to nocturnal habits where people are around, which is much of why visitors rarely see them.
The Honeyguide Relationship
The animal’s English name comes from a partnership with a bird, and the story deserves care because it is less settled than it is usually told.
The greater honeyguide is said to lead honey badgers to wild bee nests by calling and flying ahead, waiting while the badger tears the hive open, then feeding on the wax and grubs left behind. It is one of the best known examples of cooperation between a bird and a mammal.
The behaviour has been reported frequently in the wild and it remains anecdotal. No scientific study has confirmed or explained it, and researchers who have spent years watching honey badgers break into hives report never observing the guiding themselves. The honeyguide’s cooperation with human honey hunters, by contrast, is thoroughly documented.
What is beyond dispute is what happens at the hive. Honey badgers raid bee nests with apparent indifference to stings, and the target is bee larvae and pupae rather than honey itself, which is a common misunderstanding buried in the name.
The most reliable honey badger sightings in Namibia come at rest camps and lodges after dark, where animals learn that bins and kitchens are worth investigating. Campers at Etosha have had them go through a site in the small hours. Secure your food properly, keep the cool box inside the vehicle, and do not attempt to chase one off.
What Honey Badgers Eat
The honest answer is close to everything, and they search for it constantly.
Insects, small mammals, birds, reptiles, fruit, carrion, bee larvae, scorpions, snakes and tortoises all feature. In arid country such as the Karoo they crack tortoise shells open with their jaws. They are known to take venomous snakes and appear to tolerate bites that would kill a comparable animal.
Hunting technique is unusually methodical. They follow scent trails they have marked previously, search burrows, and lift the nose to test the air. When prey is underground they barricade the entrance with their forepaws and dig a second entrance to trap it. Against larger prey they use exhaustion, harrying an animal relentlessly until it gives up, which is the origin of the verb to badger.
They forage daily even when well fed, which has led some researchers to describe them as wasteful foragers.
Digging, Burrows and Movement
Honey badgers are exceptional diggers, capable of excavating a tunnel into hard ground in around ten minutes.
They have no fixed den. Instead they move constantly across their home range, usually sleeping in a different hole every night, one they have dug themselves or taken over. Old aardvark and warthog burrows are used, as are termite mounds, and they will simply appropriate burrows dug by yellow mongoose, springhare, Cape fox and bat eared fox.
Their own burrows tend to be simple: a single entrance, one to three metres long, with an unlined nesting chamber.
They are accomplished climbers as well, going up trees to raid bird nests and beehives. Combined with the digging and the ground covering, that gives them access to almost every part of the environment.
Home ranges are large and males cover far more ground than females, moving faster and further, which lets a single male overlap the ranges of many females.
The Scent Gland
Honey badgers have an anal pouch that, unusually among mustelids, can be turned inside out, a feature shared with hyenas and mongooses.
The smell released has been described as suffocating. It is deployed when the animal is seriously threatened, and there is a suggestion it may also help calm bees during a hive raid, though researchers who have watched many raids report never seeing the animals fumigate a hive deliberately. The scent may simply be a response to being stung repeatedly.
Either way, an alarmed honey badger is an unpleasant thing to be near, which is one more reason predators tend to leave them alone.
Honey Badgers and People
The conflict here is mostly about bees rather than livestock.
Beekeepers lose hives to honey badgers, which raid them for larvae, and that is the main source of persecution across their range. Poultry losses occur too. Farmers shoot, trap and poison them in some areas, though the scale of persecution is far below what jackal face.
Non lethal answers exist and work. Raising hives on stands above badger reach, or protecting them with wire, prevents most losses without killing anything, and beekeepers in southern Africa have adopted these widely.
The species is widespread and considered abundant across Africa and beyond, extending into North Africa, the Middle East and India, and is not threatened at a species level.
Breeding and How Long They Live
Honey badger breeding is unusual among carnivores and poorly documented in the wild.
They mate throughout the year with no seasonal pattern, and males are highly polygamous, with associations lasting roughly two weeks. A male maximises breeding opportunities by sharing movement ranges with females and covering ground faster and further than they do, giving him access to a substantial number of females within his area.
Litters are small, usually a single cub and occasionally two, which is low for an animal of this size. The cub stays with its mother for well over a year, considerably longer than most carnivores, learning to dig, hunt and open the things honey badgers open. That long dependency means females raise very few young across a lifetime.
Cubs are born blind and helpless in a burrow, and the mother moves them repeatedly between holes, which is thought to reduce the risk from predators that might track them to a fixed den.
In the wild they live around seven to eight years, with captive animals reaching considerably more.
Where to See Honey Badgers in Namibia
Sightings are brief and unpredictable, and often amount to an animal trotting across a road and vanishing.
Etosha. Frequent sightings reported here, helped by the open terrain. Around Halali and the rest camps after dark, and occasionally in daylight during winter.
Okonjima. The nightly hide sessions attract honey badgers along with porcupine and genet. Among the more dependable places in Namibia to see one.
Private reserves. Night drives at Erindi, the Etosha border properties and central highland reserves produce them, often around bins and camp edges.
Camping anywhere. Campsites across the country, since badgers investigate bins and food stores. Not a planned sighting, and a memorable one.
Best Time to See a Honey Badger
Winter, and after dark. Honey badgers are naturally diurnal in the colder months, so from about May to September there is a genuine chance of a daylight sighting, and in some arid areas they forage right through the day at that time of year.
Where people are present they become nocturnal, which means night drives and camp hides are the reliable route in most of Namibia.
Beyond that, luck. Most sightings last a couple of minutes at most and cannot be planned for, which is part of why people who see one remember it.
Honey Badger Questions
Are honey badgers really that fearless?
The reputation is largely earned. They attack almost any species when escape is impossible and there are credible accounts of them repelling lion and hyena. Thick, loose skin means bee stings, porcupine quills and bites rarely penetrate, and the looseness allows a held animal to twist and bite back. That said, they prefer to avoid confrontation and will leave if given the chance.
Do honeyguides really lead honey badgers to hives?
It is widely reported and not scientifically confirmed. The behaviour appears frequently in accounts and folklore, and no study has demonstrated or explained it. Researchers who have watched honey badgers break into many hives report never having observed the guiding. The honeyguide’s partnership with human honey hunters, by contrast, is well documented.
Do honey badgers eat honey?
Mostly not, whatever the name suggests. They raid bee nests for the larvae and pupae rather than the honey, which is a common misunderstanding. Their broader diet covers insects, small mammals, birds, reptiles including venomous snakes, fruit, carrion, scorpions and tortoises, whose shells they crack open with their jaws in arid country.
Where can I see a honey badger in Namibia?
Etosha produces frequent sightings, helped by open terrain, particularly around rest camps after dark. Okonjima’s nightly hide sessions attract them along with porcupine and genet and are among the more dependable options. Night drives on private reserves work well. Many people meet their first one at a campsite bin, which is not a planned sighting and tends to be memorable.
Are honey badgers dangerous to people?
They will not seek out a person, and they will defend themselves ferociously if cornered or if they feel their escape is blocked. The sensible response to one at a campsite is to leave it alone, keep your distance and let it go through whatever it is investigating. Do not chase, corner or attempt to drive one off, and secure food and bins so the situation does not arise.
How big are honey badgers?
Smaller than most people expect. They stand around 30 centimetres at the shoulder, with males weighing 9 to 16 kilograms and females 5 to 10, and mean weights across studies clustering near 9. Their reputation comes from strength, jaw power, thick loose skin and complete refusal to back down rather than from size.
Do honey badgers dig their own burrows?
They can and often do, excavating a tunnel into hard ground in about ten minutes. Their burrows are simple, with one entrance, one to three metres long and an unlined nesting chamber. They also take over holes dug by aardvark, warthog, yellow mongoose, springhare and Cape and bat eared foxes. They have no fixed den, sleeping in a different hole most nights as they move across their range.
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