Unless you were living in an internet-less cave in 2011, you've probably heard of the honey獾（（Mellivora Capensis）。That year, the YouTube video below went viral — it's now been viewed over 91 million times, which is a lot for something that isn't a Justin Bieber music video — and its refrain, "honey badger don't care," became the mantra of millions for a while.[Note: Video contains some language that may not be suitable for young or sensitive viewers.] This collage of National Geographic footage showing honey badgers eating snakes, running backwards and chasingjack尔, dubbed over by expletive-laden narration, is so entertaining, Taylor Swifthas admitted能够心中背诵整个视频。
And although the honey badger has established a lasting place in internet 兴发登录m xf839 comculture because of this three-minute comedy bit, its celebrity makes us think we know more about this strange, solitary animal than we actually do. The truth is, honey badgers aren't well understood because they're extremely difficult to study.
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他们是夜间觅食者
"How honey badgers became famous in America is incredible," says Derek van der Merwe with theEndangered Wildlife Trustin South Africa. "We get so many calls from Americans wanting to come to film them because of the famous YouTube clip. They don't realize how difficult it is to film a honey badger because they're very intelligent, a lot of them forage at night, and they have extremely big home ranges — some of them up to 500 square kilometers [310 square miles]."
蜂蜜badge或ratel，正如非洲某些地区经常被称为的那样（这个词可能来自RAAT， 这Dutch word for honeycomb），与鼬鼠更紧密地相关，而不是欧洲的badge，他们实际上不吃饭蜜糖，尽管他们对蜜蜂的弱点通常会使他们遇到人类的麻烦。他们生活在各种栖息地，从森林到沙漠，但大多在非洲，西南亚和印度的干旱地区闲逛。
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“世界上最无畏的生物”
蜂蜜badge虫已经成为无神侵略和凶猛的代名词 - 吉尼斯世界纪录将它们命名为“世界上最无畏的生物”，尤其是顽强的职业运动员有时会赚钱"honey badger"作为a nickname。他们以几乎坚不可摧的声誉而闻名，但事实是，它们很短（约11英寸[28厘米]的肩高）而不是很快，因此有时它们被更大的掠食者攻击和杀死。但是对于蜂蜜bad，最好的防御形式是进攻。
"Their thick skin is loose — so loose, in fact, that they can almost turn around completely within it," says van der Merwe. "If an animal bites the honey badger on the back, it can turn right around and bite the animal right back. They have long claws on their front feet that they use for digging, but which they use for fighting as well. Inexperienced predators — a young leopard, lion, or鬣狗, for instance — might try to attack a honey badger once, but they'll never try it again after the first time."
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蜂蜜bad和蛇毒液
蜂蜜badge通常与有毒蛇纠缠在一起，但一种误解是自然不受毒液免疫的。虽然他们确实吃了很多有毒的动物，但它们的免疫力需要随着时间的流逝而发展。蜂蜜badger如何获得这种免疫力的研究或理解不佳，但是母亲的蜂蜜badge花了很长的时间抬起每个幼犬（14-18个月），随着婴儿的成长，它的妈妈慢慢地将其介绍给有毒的动物，从最温和的动物开始蝎子并向上移动毒液梯子，直到年轻人在吃眼镜蛇和泡芙。
我们对蜂蜜badge的另一件事是，我们认为它们就像臭鼬一样 - 他们在攻击者的攻击者（并离开）上喷出了强烈，令人不快的液体。的确，他们在肛门袋中存放了一种刺耳的烟雾，他们偶尔在威胁生命的情况下释放它，但他们不会像臭鼬那样将其武器化。
“通常，当我们发现死去的蜂蜜badge时，它们被蜜蜂塞死并释放了这种物质 - 闻起来绝对可怕，” van der Merwe说。“这不是您想要自己的东西，因为您永远不会摆脱它。”
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Honey Badgers and Bees
Honey badgers can't get enough of beehives, even though ransacking them is a potentially deadly hobby for a variety of reasons. When honey badgers were first described in South Africa, they were often found in bees nests, apparently feeding on honey (hence, the common name), but it turns out they were really interested in the bee brood — the nutritious larvae found in honey comb.
“在南非，蜂蜜badge被列为几乎威胁in the early 2000s," says van der Merwe. "Beekeepers were killing them because they were causing hundreds of thousands [of dollars] worth of damage to the beekeeping industry, breaking into hives. Not only do they destroy the hive itself, the beekeeper loses honey and the swarm of bees — it's actually quite a lot of money. Some badgers just learned to just live off sacking bee hives, and they were being persecuted for it."
但是在过去的二十年中，Badger和人之间的关系变得更好：
“我们在南非所做的是开始将蜂箱从地面上抬高1.1米[3.6英尺]，或将它们绑在一起或将其绑在一起。van der Merwe说。“在2000年代初期，我们调查的养蜂人一半承认故意杀死蜂蜜badge，因为他们花了很多钱。，我们注意到某些地区的数量和范围有所增加。最不需要担心的。”
这是个好消息，因为即使他们拥有可怕的个性，蜂蜜badge也对他们所生活的生态系统有益。因为它们不如其他掠食者那么快，但他们会从洞穴中挖出啮齿动物，为鸟类提供食物猎物和jack狼经常跟随蜂蜜badge，等待抓住蜂蜜bad的猎物。
It's okay, though — the honey badger don't care.
了解有关蜂蜜badge的更多信息”Honey Badger Don't Care“作者：兰德尔·兰德尔（Randall Randa兴发首页xll）。如何基于我们认为您喜欢的书籍选择相关标题。如果您选择购买一本书，我们将收到一部分销售。
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