Status
Habitat
Range
Group
Loose in its own skin, and difficult to hold on to in every other sense.
The hide is thick, rubbery and deliberately loose across the shoulders, so an animal caught by the neck can rotate inside its own skin and bite back. Honey badgers show partial tolerance to snake venom and will take on puff adders and cobras; they also raid bee nests directly, absorbing stings that would incapacitate most predators of their size.
Their reputation for problem-solving is not folklore. Captive individuals have been documented stacking objects, rolling rocks and manipulating gates to get over walls, and observed behaviour in the field extends to following honeyguide birds and digging out prey flushed by other species. Density is low everywhere, which is why a common animal is still rarely photographed well.
The open shelf
More frames of the honey badger
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