Honey badger distribution: 

South Africa     

Badger /Beekeeper  report

Re

Historical distribution of the honey badger in

South Africa:   

The distribution of honey badgers in South Africa was last described by Smithers (1986) in the South African Red Data Book - Terrestrial Mammals. With the exception of the Northern Province, badgers were indicated to be absent from large portions of all other provinces and had never been recorded in the Free State and Lesotho. Interestingly, badgers were also indicated to be absent from a major portion of the Western Cape’s coastal lowlands and along the lower Orange River in the Northern Cape.  

In order to re-examine the question of honey badger distribution in South Africa, data were drawn from seven different sources of historical information. These were:

• Scientific literature.
• Museum records.
• Government gazettes.
• Geographical place names.
• Sightings in national parks and provincial nature reserves.
• Annual reports of the Director of Nature and Environmental Conservation, Cape Provincial Administration.
• Hunt diaries of the Suurbron Jag Klub.
• Personal communications.

A total of 497 honey badger records were obtained from museums, literature and personal communications. Some 84 South African honey badger specimens exist in African museums holdings, but, of these, 9 specimens did not contain suitable locality data. 22 of these specimens were collected during the current survey (killed by beekeepers) and donated to the Natural History Museum in Cape Town.

Historically there are 41 place names in South Africa that refer to “Ratel”, all of which are located within the Cape and North West provinces (Vernon, pers. comm.). 

The historical record also revealed that, as predators, honey badgers have been persecuted by farming communities in South Africa since the early 1800’s. Rowe-Rowe (1992) stated that badgers were “apparently incorrectly accused of killing livestock”. However, there are numerous authenticated records of them killing or maiming livestock, but their impact on livestock farming is considered to be negligible, particularly in comparison to caracal and jackal depredation (Fourie & Stuart pers. comm.). Honey badgers will also kill poultry when the latter are not well protected. In addition to killing lambs and kids, Shortridge (1934) blamed badgers for destroying ostrich chicks and farmers in the Karoo and North West province have accused badgers of breaking ostrich eggs. (Malan and Erasmus pers. comm.).  Rowe-Rowe (pers. comm.) says that due to the somewhat mythical reputation of honey badgers, farmers in Natal blame them for all sorts of unexplained livestock losses. Some farmers have resorted to killing them because of their fierce reputation and fear that they may be attacked whilst the animal is being released from a trap. Honey badgers can be particularly difficult to kill compared with similar sized animals and, when a firearm is not available, some farmers resort to burning them or driving over them in a vehicle. Hunt clubs have also been known to kill badgers due to the potential danger of them mauling their hunt packs. Honey badgers continue to be killed “accidentally” by hunt dogs (Fierrera pers. comm.).

Point data for the Cape Provinces were extracted from Fitzsimons (1919), Millar & Lloyd (1976), Coetzee (1977), Stuart (1972, 1980, 1981), Skead (1980 & 1987) and Lawson (1982). Stuart et. al (1978) recorded the presence of badgers in only 5 of the 16 reserves surveyed in the Cape Province. In all five of these reserves badgers were considered to be uncommon or rare. Honey badgers were declared vermin in the Cape Provinces for more than half a century, and a reward of 10 shillings was issued for each animal killed. The historical record from 27 districts of the Cape Province (Table 1) contains evidence to suggest that over a period of 23 years 744 badgers were killed and large numbers of badgers were killed in the Riversdale, Humansdorp and Bredasdorp districts.  

Table 1: District records of honey badgers destroyed as vermin over the period 1892 – 1955 (Source: Agricultural journal (1892) and Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette’s (1931 to 1955, 1933 excluded).   

From extensive farm surveys conducted by Lloyd and Millar (1976 & 1983), comprising questionnaires from some 44 000 landowners, honey badgers were found to be widespread through all 91 divisional council districts. The highest concentrations were recorded in the arid Namaqualand, Calvinia and Williston districts (Northern Cape). Relatively high concentrations were also recorded along southern Cape coastal region, particularly the in the vicinity of the adjoining divisions of Knysna and Uniondale. Very low densities were reported for the West coast (e.g. Piketberg, Vredenburg, Hopefield, Malmesbury districts) where badgers are presently considered to be a substantial problem by beekeepers (Section 4.3). One National Park and one provincial Nature Reserve (out of 6 and 20 surveyed respectively) in the three Cape Provinces were reported to contain honey badgers. Stuart (1981) described the species to be widespread, but nowhere common, although Stuart (1980) mentions that farmers at the south of the Riviersonderend Mountains had reported an increase in the honey badger population. The majority of animals killed during predator control programmes were taken in the southern coastal regions of Caledon, Bredasdorp, Riversdale and Mosselbay. In the North-eastern Cape, Lynch (1989) found only one unconfirmed report from the Jamestown district. Hence it is considered noteworthy that 15 badgers were killed as vermin in the Indwe district during the 1940’s (Table 1). In the Eastern Cape, Skead (1987) considered badgers to occur throughout the area, but their status was uncertain and potentially critical. In the Albany district, honey badgers were considered “very rare”, favoring wooded habitats and noticeably absent from open grassveld and Karoo. Traps and dogs were responsible for the serious decline in this district (Coetzee 1977). Of interest are seven confirmed records of albinism from the Western and Eastern Cape provinces (Fitzsimons 1919, Stuart, Fourie, Hiseman, Martin and Radloff pers. comm.).

Between the years 1944 to 1977 no mention was made of honey badgers in the annual reports of the Director of Nature and Environmental Conservation (Cape Province). The total number of badgers caught or killed by the Department’s Problem Animal Control staff is summarized in Table 2. Unfortunately, much of the information gathered by the problem animal control station at Vrolijheid appears to have been lost when the station was closed in the mid 1990’s (e.g. specimens from Stuart 1977). Mr. C.H. Radloff of the Suurbron Jag Klub (Humansdorp district) kindly made available his hunt diaries for the period 1959 to 1999. During the 40 year period concerned, a minimum of 82 badgers were trapped using the standard “Rooikat” foothold trap. Approximately 6 (7%) of these badgers were considered target animals, having killed a minimum of eight sheep. During 1990 nature conservation authorities translocated four badgers after being specifically trapped in cage traps. When added to the data presented in table 1, this would account for at least 244 badgers killed in the Humansdorp district during a 50 year period. 

Table 2: The number of honey badgers killed in the Cape provinces between 1977 and 1986 by the Department of Nature Conservation’s Problem Animal Control. The methods used are also indicated (Source: Annual Reports of the Director of Nature and Environmental Conservation).

In the former Transvaal (now Northern Province, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and a portion of North West Province) distribution records have been recorded by Pienaar (1964), Rautenbach (1978 & 1982), Henschel (1986) Grimbeek (1992) and Bailey (1993). Records occur throughout the wooded (bushveld) regions north of the Magaliesberg, across the Waterberg and along the eastern Lowveld (Rautenbach 1982, Marais 1990). Pienaar (1964) recorded badgers in all areas of the Kruger National Park and between the years 1903 and 1927 at least 87 were killed in the park (then the Sabi and Shingwidzi Game Reserves) as part of the Government’s predator control programme (Smuts 1982). During the 1980’s an estimated 40 badgers were destroyed or occasionally translocated by veterinarians and rangers after raiding fridges and dustbins inside Satara rest camp in the Kruger National Park (Draagt & Whitfield pers. comm.). Badgers were not recorded in the southern regions of Mpumalanga (highveld grasslands) and were considered to be rare and/ or endangered outside of the Kruger National Park (Rautenbach 1982). In neighbouring Swaziland, honey badgers are at risk of stochastic extinction (Monadjem 1998). 

 Figure 1: Historical records of the honey badger in South Africa, dating from 1776 to 1989 (n=497 records).

In Kwazulu-Natal honey badgers are unprotected outside of reserves and widely considered to be rare. Distribution data has been published by Dixon (1964, 1966), Bourquin et. al. (1971), Rowe-Rowe (1975 & 1978), Pringle (1977), Bruton (1978), Rautenbach et. al. (1981) and Whateley & Brooks (1985). The majority of records occur in the north and honey badgers were rarely encountered south of the latitude 29⁰ S (Smithers 1986). Rowe-Rowe (1975) and Pringle (1977) mention records from the Drakensberg (Giants Castle and Loteni) and Oribi Gorge reserves. During periods of prolonged drought their distribution is said to extend into the wetter regions of the province (Rowe-Rowe pers. comm.). Vermin records from the Mount Currie district (Table 1) confirm that badgers also had a presence in the southern reaches of the province of Kwazulu Natal. 

No confirmed reports of honey badgers exist from the Free State. Lynch (1983) conducted extensive surveys from 70 localities in the province and obtained information from 5440 questionnaires distributed amongst landowners. Records from the “vermin” control body Oranjejag were also accumulated, but no evidence suggested that badgers ever existed in the province. One unconfirmed report was received of a honey badger having been seen raiding a beehive on a farm north east of Parys and an Amathole museum record card mentions a Bushmen in 1839 with a “Ratel skin cap” near Bethany in the Free State. Similarly, no badgers have been recorded in neighbouring Lesotho (Lynch 1994).

Present distribution of the honey badger in South Africa:

Few distribution records for honey badgers have been published or lodged with museums during the past decade (1990 to 2001). Rowe-Rowe (1992) who reviewed their status in Kwazulu Natal, provides the sole source of such information. Consequently, the majority of the 398 records extracted for the purposes of the present study were accumulated from personal communications and observations during the past six years (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Current distribution of honey badgers in South Africa based on the accumulation of 398 records over the period 1990 to 2001.

During the course of the survey 28 Parks personnel from all 20 National Parks and 35 nature conservation officials from 28 Western Cape provincial reserves were interviewed to establish the perceived status of badgers inside national parks and provincial nature reserves.

The results suggest that although badgers were recorded in 15 (75%) national parks, they were considered scarce in 4 (20%). It appeared that they are no longer present in the Bontebok and Cape Peninsula National Parks. Badgers were well represented in only 6 (30%) of South Africa’s National Parks (Table 3). With respect to the Western Cape provincial nature reserves, badgers were recorded in 17 (60%) nature reserves, but only 8 (28%) of these reserves were considered to contain potentially viable populations (Table 4).

Table 3: Current status of honey badgers in 20 different South African National Parks based on information provided by ecologists, park managers, section rangers and field staff.

Absent = no records      Scarce = < 2 records since 1998       Present = regularly recorded