Are Honey Badgers and Wolverines Related?

Yes, the honey badger and the wolverine are related because they are fierce mammals that belong to the weasel family, Mustelidae, from the order Carnivora. The members of the mustelid family are broad and include species of otter, weasels, minks, ferrets, martens, and other species of badgers. Curiously, you would think that skunks belong to this family, but recent molecular analysis suggests that they belong to their own group.

The honey badger and the wolverine would undoubtedly be at home in a scene from the Wind in the Willows, but they would never meet in real life. But I must admit to an interest in comparing these two animals because of their similarities and differences.

More About Mustelidae

The mustelid family is the largest in Carnivora, comprising 56 species. They are found on five of the seven continents, with Australia and Antarctica being the exception. The largest is the wolverine on land and the sea otter in the water.

The smallest is a creature called the Least Weasel and is tiny, weighing a maximum of 250 grams. All the members of this genetic family possess anal glands that secrete a substance that emits a musk scent used for territory and defense.

Wolverine Basics

I rather thought the Encyclopedia Britannica was joking when I looked up the scientific name of the wolverine – Gulo gulo. This must be the least scientific-sounding name I have encountered to date. But I digress.

The wolverine is also referred to as a Glutton Carcajou or Skunk Bear, although it is related to neither bears nor skunks. It is the largest of the land-dwelling mustelid family. It looks a little like a bear, though it is short and squat, with an average length of 26 to 40 inches, excluding its bushy tail, which is another 5-10 inches.

It has a shoulder height of approximately 14 to 18 inches, and it weighs around 66 pounds at maturity. It has short legs with semi-retractable claws (Hugh Jackman, eat your heart out). It has a black-brown coat and a light brown stripe on either side of the body … Read the rest of the story.

Can Honey Badgers Kill Lions

Wild honey badgers are fearless, nasty, and amazing. They are tenacious and formidable fighters, and ”yes” a honey badger can kill a lion. The Guinness Book of World Records named the honey badger as ”the most fearless animal in all the animal kingdom.”

That’s quite a feat for such a small creature. These little beasts are not only fearless when it comes to attacking lions, they also think nothing of going after bees, jackals, venomous snakes, elephants, cobras, and mongooses. Basically, they’ll attack any animal without a second thought for their own safety.

Learn more about a honey badger vs a lion in a battle, honey badger attack moves, and its natural defensive weapons.

A Body Built to Fight

Although honey badgers only weigh from 11 to 40 pounds and grow from 1.5 to 2.5 feet long, their super thick skin protects them from predators. They also have a strong, offensive odor that repels other animals. Honey badgers rely on their sharp, long claws and powerful teeth to battle enemies.

Their teeth and jaws are so forceful, that they can chew through tortoise shells. They don’t have the best vision, but they have a tremendous sense of smell and exceptional hearing. When chasing prey, honey badgers gallop about 20 mph.

They also use their claws for digging small prey out of burrows. 

How Does a Honey Badger Overpower a Lion?

Size isn’t the only factor when a honey badger faces off with a lion. The lion might weigh 500 pounds compared to a 40-pound honey badger, but the relentless and fearless honey badger is a formidable opponent. Although a honey badger doesn’t always win a battle against a lion, if it can get a strategic grip with its powerful teeth and jaws, it evens the odds.

Here are some other defensive moves a honey badger displays against a lion:

Flexible and Tough Skin

Honey badger skin is thick and tough, as well as flexible. A lion’s fangs are 4 inches long and powerful. But, if they only latch on to the badger’s skin and not its bones, the … Read the rest of the story.

How Smart Are Honey Badgers?

Honey badgers, in addition to being incredibly fierce, aggressive, and grumpy, are surprisingly smart.  They have a large brain for their body size.  They are also one of the very few non-primate species that use tools, widely considered to be a sign of high intelligence by us tool-using humans.

  Watching a honey badger figure out that moving something to stand on it will allow them to get to high food is quite amazing – you can actually see the badger thinking, understanding, and planning. They appear to be able to get out of almost anywhere.  A famous, captive-raised honey badger named Stoffle, whose owner has published several videos about Stoffle’s ability to escape from virtually any enclosure. 

Fascinating to watch, these videos show Stoffle planning, trying, and retrying, all in pursuit of gaining enough height to climb over the wall of the enclosure his owner calls the honey-badger Alcatraz. They have a large brain for their size, which is evidence, but not proof, of intelligence.  More importantly, they have been seen using tools to make bridges, open cages, and increase their height to get over a fence or wall.  

Honey badgers haven’t been tested much for intelligence; they are far too aggressive and self-directed to be interested in proving anything to humans.  They really don’t like anyone very much and have been known to attack a ranger’s vehicle of a ranger trying to show one-off to some tourists. The internet has been fascinated by the career of Stoffle, a honey badger raised at the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center in South Africa.

The clips show Stoffle, sometimes with his female friend, engaging in successful escape attempt after successful escape attempt. Stoffle uses tires, rakes, logs, rocks, mud, and his female friend, as tools to get out of his “escape-proof” enclosure.  Thus far, nothing has kept him in, and he’s even broken into the home of the man who built the enclosure.

Watching Stoffle plan and calculate and adjust his escape tools, one cannot avoid the conclusion that he is thinking, that he is manipulating these found objects as tools, every … Read the rest of the story.

How Big Do Honey Badgers Get? How Much Do They Weigh?

The honey badger is an animal native to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and India. Its name can fool you. It is not as sweet as its name sounds; this small, stocky mammal is a fierce, aggressive little creature. The World Almanac considers the Honey Badger the meanest animal in the world.

What Do Honey Badgers Look Like?

The Honey Badger belongs to the weasel family and is related to skunks, otters, other badgers, and ferrets. Though not a big animal, it has a stocky, flattened appearance. It has small eyes, with poor vision, short ears that hear well, and a keen sense of smell.

It has long claws on its front feet that it uses for digging and foraging for food. It has thick, coarse hair that is black and has a broad white to grey stripe that runs down its back from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. The skin hangs relatively loose on its body, allowing the mammal to turn and move freely within it.

The neck is 6 millimeters thick, making it difficult for anything to get through, and with its loose skin makes it easy for him to turn quickly and bite a predator. Similar to its relative, the skunk, the Honey Badger has a smell, not like honey but stinky like the skunk. The scent comes from a gland at the base of its tail; though not as lingering as the skunk’s smell, it gets the message across to leave him alone when he releases the awful smell.

How Big are Honey Badgers?

The Honey Badger is a solitary animal spending most of its life alone foraging for food. Only about the size of a small to medium-sized dog. Though don’t let their size fool you, because the bite of a honey badger is strong and the long front claws intense, making them quite fierce.

Even more interesting is the size of the honey badger’s brain, and it is large compared to other mammals its size. This mammal is considered intelligent because it is one of the few non-primate … Read the rest of the story.

Why Are Honey Badgers So Fearless?

The short answer to this question is that honey badgers are fearless because they have every right to be.  They have skin that lets them attack even when held by the neck.  They are essentially immune to snake venom and scorpions and have even been known to chase off lions. 

With those stats, I’d be fearless too.  

Species, Size, and Shape

Honey badgers are members of the weasel family (multelid mellivoinae capensis).  Also known as ratels, honey badgers are omnivorous mammals with 12 subspecies.  The differences between the subspecies focus on the size and the coloring of the gray stripe on the back.  They are

• M. c. Capensis (Cape ratel)
• M. c. Indica (Indian ratel)
• M. c. Inaurita (Nepalese ratel)
• M. c. Leuconota (White-backed ratel)
• M. c. Cottoni (Black ratel)
• M. c. Concisa (Lake Chad ratel)
• M. c. Signata (Speckled ratel)
• M. c. Abyssinica (Ethiopian ratel)
• M. c. Wilsoni (Persian ratel)
• M. c. Maxwelli (Kenyan ratel)
• M. c. Pumilio (Arabian ratel)
• M. c. Buechneri (Turkmenian ratel)

The weight ranges from about 13 pounds to about 30 pounds within all those subspecies.  Tails range from 4 inches to about 9 inches, with the corresponding body lengths being about 24 inches to about 40 inches.  They range from 9 to 11 inches tall.

Honey badgers live up to 26 years in zoos, but their nocturnal and solitary nature means that we know little about how they live or how long in the wild.  The honey badger has a low flattish body with cobby legs and front claws that are up to three inches long and built for digging.  Strong muscles in the neck and a heavy jar make for an impressive bite force.  

Honey badgers have thick loose skin on their backs and necks.  This means that when being held by an attacker by the neck, they can still turn and bite the attacker.  Further, the thick skin makes them virtually impervious to porcupine quills, bee stings, and even bites from smaller animals like snakes. 

Like its relative, the skunk, the honey badger has a scent gland at the base … Read the rest of the story.

3 Different Types of Raccoons

A raccoon is a grayish-brown mammal with a fox-like face. Its distinctive features include a ringed tail, masked face, and thick underfur that protects it from cold extremes. Its five-figured dexterous front hands (resembling human figures) also distinguish raccoons from the rest of the Procyonidae family.

It is native to North America, Canada, and some parts of Latin America. You would probably attest to how it ransacked and scattered the garbage in your trash if you have ever met one. Or how it cleared snakes, rats, lizards, and other varmints from your compound. 

Yes, raccoons can be messy and useful at the same time. And the way you treat them depends on your perception. Want to learn more about these small animals?

Please keep reading to learn about the different types of raccoons,  their habitats, habits, favorite meal, life expectancy, and other aspects of this masked animal. Basically, there are three main types of raccoons:

1. Procyon Lotor
2. Procyon  Pygmaeus
3. Procyon Cancrivorus

Below  is a  detailed description  of  each of the above species:

1. Procyon Lotor-The Eastern Racoon

The eastern raccoon, aka the Procyon lotor, is the largest among all raccoon species. It is prevalent in most regions of Canada, Russia, Germany and almost all regions of the United States, excluding Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. They are ubiquitous.

You can find eastern raccoons in abandoned buildings, forests, cities, prairies, and marshes, among other areas.  More  specifically, they are known  to rest/sleep in tree  holes, abandoned vehicles, hollow trees, sewers, house burrows, rock crevices, barns, etc. The eastern raccoons are omnivores.

They can feast on fish, frogs, crabs, and other water critters, snakes, rats,garbage waste, plants, fruits, and birds and their eggs on land. These creatures use a combo of their strong sense of smell, sharp eyesight, and lightning-fast hands to locate, spot, and snatch their meals.  They last between two and three years.

The eastern raccoons don’t have permanent homes. Instead, they are nomadic within an established territory.  They will mark potential shelters within a  territory, where they can always rest after long hunting.

These nocturnals mate between January and March. … Read the rest of the story.

8 Different Types of Elk

Camping in the Hoh Rain Forest of the Olympic National Park in Washington brought me far too close to a wild encounter with an elk. The Roosevelt Elk is one of the largest elk among the types that roam in the United States. One of these bulls came waltzing right by our vehicle as we were unloading at the campground.

Talk about a close encounter, the elk then sat down under a tree next to the entryway and was there for at least an hour. This animal is regarded as one of the kings of the forest, even in the rainforests of North America. Find out more about the different types of elk that are both extinct as well as present on our landscapes today.

Types of Elk Extinct in the Wild

Let’s start with a brief look at the types of elk that are unfortunately no longer present in our ecosystem. These include the Merriam elk and Eastern elk. The Merriam elk is truly extinct, while the Eastern elk was replaced by the Rocky Mountain elk.

There is also the Irish elk, aka the giant deer, which was one of the biggest and oldest species of elk. The Irish elk is actually not from Ireland at all but from Siberia. Before we focus on individual species of elk, here is an interesting question. What is the difference between an elk and a moose?

Elk vs Moose

The elk is sometimes confused with the moose, as these are both large horned species of deer. The horns of the male elk and moose are both very big, spreading as wide as an adult is tall. These horn racks are much more pronounced compared to even the largest bucks of the whitetail deer species. You can find elk living in:

• North America
• Central Asia
• East Asia
• Europe

If you see a big animal that is larger than a deer with an expansive set of horns, it is either a moose or an elk. So, like that famous question of crocodile or alligator, how can you tell the difference between a moose and … Read the rest of the story.