WEBVTT - What Are Honey Badgers Really Like?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vocal bamb here unless you are living

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<v Speaker 1>under the sort of rock that does not get WiFi.

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<v Speaker 1>In eleven you've probably heard of the honey badger biological

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<v Speaker 1>classification at Melavora capensis. That year, a YouTube video went

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<v Speaker 1>viral featuring a collage of national geographic footage showing honey

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<v Speaker 1>badgers eating snakes, running backwards, and chasing jackals, with explet

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<v Speaker 1>of written narration featuring the refrain honey badger, don't care.

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<v Speaker 1>It's now been viewed over nine one million times, and

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<v Speaker 1>Taylor Swift has admitted to being able to recite the

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<v Speaker 1>entire video by heart. And although the honey badger has

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<v Speaker 1>established a lasting place in Internet culture because of this

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<v Speaker 1>three minute comedy bit, its celebrity may make us think

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<v Speaker 1>we know more about this strange, solitary animal than we

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<v Speaker 1>actually do. The truth is honey badgers aren't well understood

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<v Speaker 1>because they're extremely difficult to study. We spoke with Derek

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<v Speaker 1>vonder Merva with the Endantured Wildlife Trust in South Africa.

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<v Speaker 1>He said, how honey badgers became famous in America is incredible.

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<v Speaker 1>We get so many calls from Americans wanting to come

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<v Speaker 1>film them because of the famous YouTube clip. They don't

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<v Speaker 1>realize how difficult it is to film a honey badger

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<v Speaker 1>because they're very intelligent, A lot of them forage at night,

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<v Speaker 1>and they have extremely big home ranges, some of them

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<v Speaker 1>up to five hundred square kilometers that's three square miles.

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<v Speaker 1>Honey Badgers are more closely related to a weasel than

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<v Speaker 1>a European badger, and they don't actually eat honey, though

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<v Speaker 1>their weakness for beehives and the tasty bee larva within

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<v Speaker 1>often gets them in trouble with humans. They live in

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<v Speaker 1>a wide range of habitats, from forests to deserts, but

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<v Speaker 1>mostly hang out in dry areas in Africa, Southwest Asia,

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<v Speaker 1>and India. Honey Badgers have become synonymous with aggression and ferocity.

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<v Speaker 1>Guinness World Records has named them the world's most fearless creature,

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<v Speaker 1>to the point that particularly tenacious professional athletes sometimes earn

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<v Speaker 1>honey badger as a nickname. They the honey badger animal

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<v Speaker 1>not The athletes have a reputation for being nearly indestructible,

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<v Speaker 1>but the truth is they're short, just about eleven inches

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<v Speaker 1>at shoulder height, which is about twenty eight anometers and

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<v Speaker 1>not very fast, so they're sometimes attacked and killed by

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<v Speaker 1>bigger predators. But for a honey badger, the best form

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<v Speaker 1>of defense is attack. Vonder Mareva said. Their thick skin

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<v Speaker 1>is loose, so loose, in fact, that they can almost

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<v Speaker 1>turn around completely within it. If an animal bites the

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<v Speaker 1>honey badger on the back, it can turn around and

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<v Speaker 1>bite the animal right back. They have long claws on

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<v Speaker 1>their front feet that they use for digging, but which

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<v Speaker 1>they use for fighting as well. Inexperienced predators a young leopard, lion,

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<v Speaker 1>or hyena, for instance, might try to attack a honey

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<v Speaker 1>badger once, but they'll never try it again after the

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<v Speaker 1>first time. Honey Badgers often tangle of venomous snakes, but

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<v Speaker 1>one misconception is that they are naturally immune to venom.

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<v Speaker 1>While it's true they eat a lot of venomous animals,

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<v Speaker 1>their immunity needs to be developed over time. How honey

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<v Speaker 1>badgers acquire this immunity is not well studied or understood.

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<v Speaker 1>But mother honey badgers spend a long time raising each

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<v Speaker 1>pub fourteen to eighteen months, and as the baby grows,

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<v Speaker 1>it seems it's mom slowly introduces it to venomous animals,

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<v Speaker 1>starting with the mildest scorpion and moving up the venom

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<v Speaker 1>ladder until the youngsters eating cobras and puff adders. Another

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<v Speaker 1>thing we get wrong about honey badgers is that we

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<v Speaker 1>think they're like skunks because they bear a physical resemblance

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<v Speaker 1>in their fur pattern. Skunks spray a strong, unpleasant smelling

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<v Speaker 1>liquid at their attackers to gross them out and get

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<v Speaker 1>them away. And while it's true that honey badgers do

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<v Speaker 1>store a revolting smelling substance in their anal pouch and

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<v Speaker 1>they occasionally release it when they're in a life threatening situation,

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<v Speaker 1>they don't weaponize it the way skunks do. It's more

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<v Speaker 1>a panic button than a threat, though it's still something

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<v Speaker 1>you don't want to get on you because that stench lingers.

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<v Speaker 1>When honey badgers were first described in South Africa, they

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<v Speaker 1>were often found in bees nests, apparently feeding on honey,

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<v Speaker 1>hence the common name. But it turns out that they

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<v Speaker 1>were really interested in the bee brood, the nutritious lava

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<v Speaker 1>found in the honeycomb. Mondamreva said. In South Africa, the

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<v Speaker 1>honey badger was listed as near threatened in the early

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand's beekeepers were killing them because they were causing

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<v Speaker 1>hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to the

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<v Speaker 1>beekeeping industry. Breaking into hives. Not only do they destroy

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<v Speaker 1>the hive itself, the beekeeper loses honey and the swarm

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<v Speaker 1>of bees. It's actually quite a lot of money. Some

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<v Speaker 1>badgers just learned to live off sacking beehives, and they

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<v Speaker 1>were being persecuted for it. But over the past two

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<v Speaker 1>decades the relationship between badger and human has gotten better.

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<v Speaker 1>Vondermirva explained what we did in South Africa is start

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<v Speaker 1>raising the hives off the ground by one point one

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<v Speaker 1>meters or three point six feet, or strapping them together

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<v Speaker 1>or two tires on the ground. This prevents the honey

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<v Speaker 1>badgers rolling the hives, which is how they access them.

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<v Speaker 1>In the early two thousand's, half the beekeepers we surveyed

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<v Speaker 1>admitted to deliberately killing honey badgers because they were costing

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<v Speaker 1>them so much money. Since we've come up with these

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<v Speaker 1>methods for preventing the badgers from accessing the hives, beekeepers

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<v Speaker 1>are no longer killing them, and we've noticed an increase

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<v Speaker 1>in numbers and in range in some areas. They've since

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<v Speaker 1>been downgraded to a species of Least Concern, which is

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<v Speaker 1>great news because even though they've got terrible personalities, honey

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<v Speaker 1>badgers are good for ecosystems they live in because they're

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<v Speaker 1>not as fast as other predators. They'll dig rodents out

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<v Speaker 1>of burrows but miscatching them, thus providing food for birds

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<v Speaker 1>of prey and jack goals, which often follow a honey

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<v Speaker 1>badger around waiting to catch the honey badger's intended prey.

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<v Speaker 1>It's okay, though the honey badger don't care. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other

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<v Speaker 1>pugnacious topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.

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