KALAHARI RESEARCH: 

Summary of the thesis  

Feeding ecology and social organisation of honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) in the southern Kalahari

Colleen M. Begg

Supervisors:  

Prof. J.T. du Toit

Director: Mammal Research Institute

Department of Zoology and Entomology

University of Pretoria

Prof. M.G.L. Mills

Mammal Research Institute

South African National Parks

Carnivore Conservation Group, Endangered Wildlife Trust

Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy  (Zoology) in the Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences, November 2001. Awarded April 2002

Summary

In the first in depth study of the species, radiotracking (13 females; 12 males) and visual observations of nine habituated individuals (5 244 h) were used to investigate the diet, foraging behaviour and social organization of free-living honey badgers Mellivora capensis in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa.

 Significant seasonal differences in diet and foraging behaviour were observed. In support of optimal diet theory, the cold dry season diet is characterized by low species richness, low foraging yield, high dietary diversity and increased foraging time while the reverse is true in the hot wet and hot-dry seasons. The honey badger appears to shift between alternative prey species depending on their availability on a seasonal and daily level.

 Despite marked sexual size dimorphism no intersexual differences in diet or foraging behaviour were observed, but there were sexual, and in males age- related differences in movement patterns, scent marking and social behaviour. The honey badger shows a polygynous or promiscuous mating system but does not fit the general mustelid pattern of intrasexual territoriality. Instead, adult males had extensive overlapping home ranges (548 km²) that encompassed the smaller, regularly spaced home ranges of the females (138 km²) and young males (178 km²). Receptive females are an unpredictable and scare resource in space (large home ranges) and time (no breeding season) with a long time to renewal (interbirth interval > 1 year).  As a result adult males adopt a roaming rather than a staying tactic with competition for access to the mating burrow mediated by a dominance hierarchy. The hierarchy is maintained through regular aggressive and agonistic interactions and scent marking (latrines). In females and young males token urination is common and its association with foraging behaviour suggests that it mediates spatio-temporal separation and/or resource utilization.

 Interspecific interactions between the honey badger and other mammalian and avian predators are common and included intraguild predation and interspecific feeding associations (two mammals; five birds). These associations appear to be commensalism, with associating species benefiting from increased hunting opportunities and intake rate but no significant costs or benefits to the honey badger.