18 Different Types of Scorpions

Scorpions have a somewhat evil reputation as small but vicious creatures. If you’ve ever seen one from up close, you’ll understand why. Not only do scorpions look creepy and scary, but some of them are also venomous!

They fall into the Arachnida class and are related to spiders, ticks, and mites and can be found in many different areas all over the world. Most commonly, they are found in deserts, forests, and even places like the Himalayas. Let’s learn more about these fascinating Arachnids and how they continue to exist despite being killed on sight by humans.

Different Types of Scorpions

As if being one of the creepiest creatures on earth isn’t enough, there are also many different kinds of scorpions. Some of them are highly venomous and can cause real problems, while others aren’t a threat to anyone but their prey.

Most Venomous Scorpions

If you ever encounter any of the scorpions on this list, be careful! You can get hurt and even die if you mess with them. If the scorpion made its way into your home and you need to get rid of it, suck it up with a vacuum or use a broom and dustpan and take it outside.

1. Spitting Thick Tail Black Scorpion

The Spitting Thick Tail Black Scorpion is a native of South Africa and one of the most venomous types you’ll find. It can grow up to six inches tall and is typically found in desert areas and scrubland. As their name suggests, these scorpions have thick and powerful tails, two tiny pinchers, and a very potent sting.

This scorpion has two kinds of venom. The first venom is used to immobilize smaller prey, while the second one – which is more toxic – is used for bigger creatures like humans. What’s even scarier, this scorpion can spit venom which can go as far as three feet.

The venom can lead to temporary blindness and it is as potent as cyanide.

2. Yellow Fat Tail Scorpion

This is yet another scorpion that can be found in Africa and is considered … Read the rest of the story.

Where Do Honey Badgers Live?

Honey badgers are one of the most adaptable species. They can be found in a vast number of areas, such as Africa, Western Asia, North America, and even the Middle East. Honey badgers are some of the most fearless animals, and this trait is one of the many reasons they can adapt to just about any area of the world. 

The University of Michigan’s Animal Diversity Web, states that we can discover badgers in the western states of the US, Canadian provinces in the central-western region, and the hilly regions of Mexico. Their thicker skin also allows them to go fairly unbothered in the wild, as we will see as we continue reading.

Where do Honey Badgers Live?

Honey badgers are incredibly adaptable mammals that are native to Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia. They tend to have a very wide living area ranging up to 193 square miles.  While this seems like a vast area to cover, honey badgers are up to the task.

Similar to domestic cats, they use their scent glands to mark their territory. Male and female honey badgers tend to occupy different territories, with males generally having more. Typically, honey badgers live a more nomadic lifestyle.

They do tend to stay in a general area. However, they do not sleep in the same spot every night.  They can build burrows or simply occupy the homes of their distant relatives.

The goal is to be well protected against predators since they usually sleep throughout the day. Before we delve further into where badgers live, let’s find out more about what they are.

What are Honey Badgers?

Honey badgers have a reputation for being one of the most fearless animals to ever live, but there is so much more to them.  Honey badgers are small-sized animals, usually weighing between 13 and 30 pounds. They are members of the weasel family with very thick skin that helps protect them from predators during fights.

Honey badgers got their name because they love to feed on honey and even honeybee larvae. If you take a glance at a honey badger, … Read the rest of the story.

What Do Honey Badgers Eat?

If you answered honey, you would not be completely wrong. Honey badgers (Mellivora Capensis) are fierce omnivores with an adaptable diet that includes honey, honey bee larvae, roots, berries and fruit, insects, small mammals, and even amphibians and birds. Honey badgers are fascinating, rough-and-tumble creatures and undoubtedly worth knowing more about.

For parents, this mammal is a treasure trove for school projects.

Honey Badger Basics

Unsurprisingly, honey badgers belong to the same family of mammals as otters, weasels, other badgers, and wolverines. The genus of the honey badger is Mellivora, a subcategory of the mammalian family Mustelidae, of the Carnivora order. Honey badgers are also known by the name Ratel.

Honey badgers are medium-sized, with an average shoulder height of approximately 11 inches, and they weigh around 30 pounds at maturity. They are distinguishable by their thick black fur and a broad silver-white stripe from their head to their tail. Their muscular neck has a thick layer of skin that helps them wriggle around and escape opponents’ jaws.

They can secrete a potent scent from their anal glands to deter others. Honey badgers have stout bodies with long sharp claws and lethal teeth for tearing flesh, and by their very nature, they are formidable warriors. A honey badger’s sense of smell is powerful, balanced out by their eyesight, which is poor and limited hearing.

Honey Badger Habitat

Honey badgers are found predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of western Asia, and in Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. They prefer a dryer habitat but can adapt to forest and grassland biomes. They use their long claws to dig burrows for homes, or if they feel lazy and it is convenient, they are not above stealing other animals’ burrows.

If neither of these is an option, then honey badgers will make do with what they have, including using termite founds and exposed tree roots. Honey badgers are intelligent and are one of the species in the animal kingdom that uses tools to make their lives easier.

Eating Habits of the Honey Badger

We already know that the … Read the rest of the story.

Can You Have a Honey Badger as a Pet?

Despite the sweet name, honey badgers have a salty personality. They are aggressive and have a scent defense mechanism. If that wasn’t enough to deter you from wanting one as a pet, they are also illegal to keep.

Even if you did manage to kidnap one, it wouldn’t last. Honey badgers are known for their sleight of hand escapes.  I first discovered the honey badger from a viral video over a decade ago.

It was a nature capture with a documentary feel of a honey badger interacting in the wild with a hilarious voiceover. The world was introduced to the honey badger in the best way possible, putting a little comedic relief on a sort of terrifying animal. But before we get too far down the smack talk road, let’s learn a little bit more about these fearless protein lovers.

About the Honey Badger

Because every animal is cute and innocent as a baby, let’s go back to the beginning. Sometime around 5,000,000 years ago, a carnivore in Asia evolved into what is now referred to as the honey badger. His ancient relatives had become extinct by this time and he was kind of alone as a species.

Perhaps that’s where the perpetual chip on his shoulder comes from.  Today, there are 12 honey badger subspecies that are spread out across two continents. So, he took his anger and let it multiply.

If you are on the hunt, you might run across one or nine in parts of India, the majority of Africa, and the Middle East west of Iran. Also, for some reason, Turkmenistan. Another misdirection about the honey budger is that it’s not a badger.

In reality, it’s more a weasel than anything else. Although to look at the two, you might see a resemblance to the Tasmanian devil in both appearance and name. Some might say a Tasmanian devil with an atrocious haircut, but I digress. 

Most Fearless In The Animal Kingdom

While the honey badger is the largest terrestrial mammal of its type, the total height maxes out at about 11 inches. That’s roughly the … Read the rest of the story.

How Dangerous Are Honey Badgers?

The honey badger (Mellivora capensis) is an omnivorous mammal originally from sub-Saharan Africa and fond of living in dry grasslands. The honey badger, also called a ratel, is a strong animal and, like all badgers, has a flattish body with short, cobby legs. 

Its large, powerful front claws and feet are entirely adapted for digging.    

Honey Badger Facts

The honey badger has a thick coat of coarse black hair with a broad gray stripe along with its head and back. Like another animal whose fur looks like that, honey badgers can use scent as a defensive weapon against a larger predator. Some scientists think this stench can also be calming to bees, making it easier for the badger to raid hives.

The fur and skin are incredibly loose, allowing the badger to turn and bite an attacker holding its hide. Honey badgers not only deliver a pretty mean bite, but they’re also relatively fearless – with reason – of the bites of others. They enjoy eating scorpions and snakes and have an unusual level of immunity to the venom.

 Thus, even when bitten, the honey badger walks away from a confrontation that might have killed another animal.   Honey badgers usually only have one or two cubs at a time. Their nocturnal nature, secretiveness, and overall charm mean that we don’t know much more than that about their breeding. 

As a member of the weasel family, the honey badger is related to skunks, otters, ferrets, wolverines, and other badgers. Its common name is honey badger because of its habit of digging in beehives, but it was actually looking primarily for high-protein bee larvae, not the honey!  The badger’s range includes much of southern Africa and Asia, from Morocco to the Caspian Sea and the southern tip of Africa.

They live primarily in dry areas but also like forests and grasslands. Good swimmers, they can climb trees and are primarily nocturnal. The honey badger eats small birds and mammals and the young of larger mammals.

It also eats reptiles, snakes, insects, and scorpions, being immune to venom, as well as some … Read the rest of the story.

What Kills Honey Badgers (Other Than People)?

Only a few natural predators go after honey badgers but they’re sometimes hunted by hyenas, lions, and leopards. The honey badger’s aggressive behavior, on the other hand, makes it a difficult meal for predators, and given the honey badger’s small size, predators’ efforts are frequently better spent obtaining an easier, meatier meal.

The honey badger is known for its hardness, aggressiveness, and strength. When escape is difficult, it is known to attack practically any other species viciously and fearlessly, even repelling much larger predators like lions and hyenas. The Guinness Book of World Records deems this animal the most fearless.

Animal bites, bee stings, and porcupine quills rarely penetrate their skin. A honey badger will attack horses, cattle, or Cape buffalos who enter its burrow.

What Kills Honey Badgers?

If you were to ask someone what causes the most honey badger deaths, they would probably assume a big animal such as a lion or leopard. However, many honey badgers have been found stung to death by bees.  You see, honey badgers love to consume honey and bee larvae.

They are willing to invade beehives in the hopes of attaining their favorite meal, even if it means getting stung hundreds of times. Their thick skin and fur aren’t usually able to protect them from these attacks. Honey badgers are some of the most ferocious animals, and this trait can typically lead to their death in the wild.

They are very aggressive and territorial animals, which means they don’t back down without a fight. Honey badgers have been known to go up against larger animals such as leopards, lions, tigers, and hyenas. They have been known to attack these larger animals to try and steal their food, but this tactic doesn’t usually end well for them.

They are much smaller in size than their opponents, which leaves them at a major disadvantage.  Overall, honey badgers generally don’t face many threats in the wild because of their aggressiveness, but this same trait usually leads to their overconfidence when attacking bigger animals. They can live up to seven years in the wild, which … Read the rest of the story.

Are Honey Badgers Dangerous to People?

The honey badger looks unassuming. It’s the size of a medium dog and has coloring similar to a skunk. Sure, it’s known for being fierce, and even fearless, but is it really dangerous to people? 

Is the honeybadger actually one of the most dangerous animals on the planet, or is its bark worse than its bite?  Honey badgers don’t typically attack people without provocation, but they can cause some harm if they attack.  The honey badger is part of the family Mustelidae.

Within the Mustelidae family, the honey badger is the species Mellivora. In fact, it’s the only species within the Mellivora group.  Other members of the Mustelidae family include badgers, weasels, ferrets, minks,and wolverines. 

Badgers, also known as European badgers, are similar in appearance to honey badgers. However, they are the more even-tempered of the two species.  Honey badgers are native to sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and western Asia.

Surprisingly, they can live in a variety of habitats, including tropical rainforests, and cool mountain tops.  They have a wide territorial range and are fairly solitary creatures. 

Honey Badgers and People Don’t Mix

We’ll get into what makes honey badgers so dangerous in a moment. First, you should know that a honey badger can do serious harm to a human.  There are legends of them killing humans, but these claims are hard to verify.

In the early 1900s, there were plenty of reports of badgers biting off the most sensitive bits of men, leaving them to bleed to death. However, there are no recent reports of this, so it’s just a legend, right? Surprisingly, the behavior is well documented.

Zoological studies have shown that when up against a large animal, like a lion or hyena, the honey badger will remove the animal’s testicles as a way to defend itself.  Not only is the honey badger named “the world’s fiercest animal” by the Guinness Book of Records, it isn’t afraid to strike a low blow.  Has a honey badger ever killed a human?

It’s nearly certain they have. Are they likely to kill you? Perhaps not, but they are likely to cause injuries … Read the rest of the story.