|
Honey
badgers are generalist carnivores with an extremely wide diet. More than
sixty species of prey were recorded from the southern Kalahari alone. Badgers eat a
host of smaller food items like insect larvae, beetles, scorpions,
lizards, rodents and birds. They will catch the larger reptiles like
leguaans, crocodiles (1 meter) and pythons (3meters) and include the
highly venomous adders, cobras and black mamba in their diet. Larger
mammals like the Springhare, polecat and particularly juvenile
foxes, jackals, antelope and wild cats, are also caught. They
locate their prey predominantly by their acute sense of smell and catch
most of their prey through digging. As many as fifty holes may be dug in a
single foraging period and badgers may cover distances that exceed 40
kilometers in a 24 hour period. Honey badgers are accomplished climbers
and can easily climb up into the uppermost branches of trees to raid bird
nests or bee hives. In the Kalahari they have been seen raiding various
raptor nests, including the Pale Chanting Goshawk, which is
frequently seen in association with badgers. As
their name suggests, badgers have always been associated with honey yet it
is the highly nutritious bee brood they eat. While bee brood does
not form a necessary part of their diet they will go to great lengths to
raid honeybee hives in search of bee brood when it is available(see badgers and bee-keepers) and may cause a lot of damage to
apiaries in the process. Badgers will also dig out
the larvae belonging to solitary bee species. In
the Kalahari badgers were rarely seen drinking water at the available
waterholes, and derived most of their water requirements from their food
and from the Tsama melon (Citrullus lanatus) during seasons when
they were available. Honey
badgers may also pirate food from other carnivores and will scavenge from
the kills of larger animals although they are primarily hunters of their
own food. There
appear to be strong regional , seasonal and indvidual differences in diet. ACTIVITY
PATTERNS Honey
badgers are solitary foragers and foraging behaviour is characterised by a
slow winding walk with continuous smelling of rodent and small reptile
holes and scent trails. In the southern Kalahari, honey badgers switch
from being predominantly nocturnal in summer and diurnal in Winter.
However, in areas where honey badgers are affected by human activities
they are usually nocturnal. They have a two-peaked activity pattern
with two active periods of 2-8 hours each during a 24 hr period and
prolonged resting in burrows or under bushes. |
