the honey-badger is an extraordinarily powerful and wide-re-y animal with small eyes and ears and short, powerful legs. The warning-coloring of the honey-badgers quite corresponds to its courageous nature and the very well trained anal-glands, from which they "shoot" a smelly secretion at an opponent in direction
its back is colored gray or white, the legs and the stomach-side are black. African honey-badgers possess a white cut-off point between the light back and the dark stomach-side furthermore. Adult males can gain a remarkable length of 80 cm and a weight of over 15 kg.
Spread The occurrence of the honey-badger includes the open steppes and moist rain-forests of southeast-Asia and over virtually whole Africa.
Honey-badger and honey-indicators The Ratel owe a special "symbiosis" with two 10-20 cm to its very powerful grave-claws big woodpecker-birds, the big honey-indicator (Indicator indicator) and the shed-honey-indicator (Indicator variegatus) from Africa. However, these birds possess the ability, the nests of wild bees, wasps and other Hautflügler to find, whose content they don't get. Through ongoing reputations now leads these birds at the bee-nest, that is in the situation thanks to its grave-claws, a honey-badger to break the Hautflüglerbau open. The honey-badger now sticks without damage to the honey while the honey-indicators attack the bee-larvae and the wax. That so powerful front-extremities also are suitable excellently to be the weapon, everyone, that kicks peaceful skilled workers too near it at itself, will have to determine painfully.
Defense Another type of defending themselves should be described here: The honey-badgers have the ability at their disposal to dig themselves in in a flash with all four that they sink formally in the ground. However, this passive defense-means gives way to one as quick-tempered to mark attack under furious snarl and with far-torn mouth, if driven the animal into the narrowness for itself feels. The honey-badger has enemies to hardly fear, however, it possesses a strong, odd skin. A fat-layer, that is stored so loosely on the musculature lying under it, surrounds these that the skin like one sits umgehängte cover of rubber loosely at the body. The animal can "turn around" in the own brat so to speak, and the aggressor doesn't find any hold.
Way of life Honey-badgers live nightly, is active from time to time also on the day, however. they trot slowly in its residential-area around and often are accompanied by a sex-partner on that occasion. they sleep in simple, myself-dug Erdhöhlen, takes before-dearly also with each existing cavity offering itself, however. they are omnivores, who live from berries, lizards, snakes or birds and their eggs, like many martens. its powerful jaw is able to crack even turtle-tanks on that occasion with one single bite. However, its special preference is for the honey, to which it owes also its name.
Reproduction We don't know anything exact about the reproductive-behavior of the honey-badger, is however to be assumed, that it essentially doesn't differ from other badgers here, how relating to this the whole family of the martens is rather uniform. The boy-number of the honey-badger usually amounts to two after a Tragzeit of approximately six months.
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