Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Mustelidae > Mellivora > Mellivora capensis

Mellivora capensis (Honey Badger)

Wikipedia Abstract

The honey badger (Mellivora capensis), also known as the ratel (/ˈreɪtəl/ or /ˈrɑːtəl/),is the only species in the mustelid subfamily Mellivorinae and its only genus Mellivora. It is native to Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Despite its name, the honey badger does not closely resemble other badger species; instead, it bears more anatomical similarities to weasels. It is classed as Least Concern by the IUCN owing to its extensive range and general environmental adaptations. It is primarily a carnivorous species and has few natural predators because of its thick skin and ferocious defensive abilities.
View Wikipedia Record: Mellivora capensis

Infraspecies

Mellivora capensis abyssinica (Ratel)
Mellivora capensis buechneri
Mellivora capensis capensis (Ratel)
Mellivora capensis concisa
Mellivora capensis cottoni
Mellivora capensis inaurita (Ratel)
Mellivora capensis indica (Ratel)
Mellivora capensis leuconota (Ratel)
Mellivora capensis maxwelli
Mellivora capensis pumilio (Ratel)
Mellivora capensis signata
Mellivora capensis wilsoni (Ratel)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
13
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
39
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 26.23
EDGE Score: 3.3
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  22.046 lbs (10.00 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  210 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Herbivore
Diet - Ectothermic [2]  20 %
Diet - Endothermic [2]  40 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  20 %
Diet - Plants [2]  10 %
Diet - Scavenger [2]  10 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Gestation [1]  6 months
Litter Size [1]  2
Litters / Year [1]  2
Maximum Longevity [1]  31 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  29 inches (73 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Antidorcas marsupialis (springbok)[4]
Atelerix albiventris (Four-toed Hedgehog)[5]
Litocranius walleri (gerenuk)[6]
Otomys irroratus (vlei rat)[7]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Antidorcas marsupialis, James W. Cain III, Paul R. Krausman, and Heather L. Germaine, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 753, pp. 1–7 (2004)
♦ 5Atelerix albiventris (Erinaceomorpha: Erinaceidae), ERICA M. SANTANA, HOLLY E. JANTZ, AND TROY L. BEST, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 42(857):99–110 (2010)
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Otomys irroratus, G. Bronner, S. Gordon, and J. Meester, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 308, pp. 1-6 (1988)
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9International Flea Database
♦ 10Mellivora capensis, Jana M. Vanderhaar and Yeen Ten Hwang, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 721, pp. 1–8 (2003)
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0