I think SOGP & I watched the program from which this is taken - and this is one inventive, intelligent, determined, undaunted animal. The problem is that Honey Badgers aren't called Honey cuz they're cute, they are called Honey because they luuuuurve honey. And they raid the hives of local farmers, which makes the farmers very cranky, and the farmers then kill all the honey badgers they can find. This fellow is locked up because if the farmers find him, that's it.
The fellow keeping this guy captive is also trying to devise fences and platforms and hive boxes and whatnot that can resist a determined honey badger's best efforts. So far: fellow zero, honey badgers 87 bazillion.
Yeah, the BBC show this is an excerpt from is still on iPlayer from a couple of weeks ago. And the person trying to create a honey-badger-proof hive is classically inept. He has the bright idea of a stand with metal legs to make it harder to climb, but doesn't think to make the legs wide enough that they can't wrap their legs around it!
Dude, the problem with ratel-proof hives is that they have to be other-beastie proof, too. Depending on location, we have big critters wandering around here in Africa. The results of a Cape buffalo scratching his arse on a hive are threefold: hive goes south, bees meet beest (whose hide is not really that thick), and then it ALL goes to hell, no handbasket needed. You can swap Cape buffalo with anything from a Bonsmara beef cow all the way up to an elephant. End result of big critter meets hive: the skep is scrapped, the bees bugger off, and the ratel-proof hive designers are once again staring at a blank drawing board.
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james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-04-25 01:02 pm
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The fellow keeping this guy captive is also trying to devise fences and platforms and hive boxes and whatnot that can resist a determined honey badger's best efforts. So far: fellow zero, honey badgers 87 bazillion.
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Welcome to Africa? *grin*