N.A.P.A.K - The Honey Badger: The Truth Behind The Myth Part II

In South Africa, you can now buy “honey badger-friendly” honey. But, one has to ask, why on earth anyone would want to be friendly to an animal labeled “the meanest animal in the world”. This is a little critter that, due to its reputation for tenacity even has an armoured personnel carrier named after it in the South African Defense Force and has attracted other superlatives in the popular press including “most fearless animal in the world’ in the 2003 edition of the Guinness Book of Records and “pound for pound the most powerful creature in Africa’’. What is the truth behind this small secretive creature with the bold black & white markings and the larger than life reputation?

Honey Badger digging at night

Nine years ago, little was known about the honey badger or ratel Mellivora capensis (Schreber 1776) despite its extensive historical distribution. We did not even know the fundamental biology of this species; how many young did they have, what was their social organisation, how much space did they need or even how did they communicate. Previous short term studies and stomach analysis suggested that they were generalist carnivores, but did they really castrate large prey leaving them to bleed to death, as suggested by Stevenson-Hamilton, the first warden of the Kruger National Park, South Africa in 1947? Contradictory and frequently misleading accounts of the honey badger were common, both within the popular press and contemporary “field guides”.

Since knowledge of a species’ behaviour is the key to successful conservation efforts, an in-depth study was considered both overdue and essential. So began our journey with the honey badgers with an initial study in Mana Pools National Park Zimbabwe in 1994. This lead to a four-year research project in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa (1996-1999) and the ongoing badger & beekeeper extension programme and “badger friendly” initiative that started in 2000. Currently we are conducting research on honey badgers in a remote wilderness, the Niassa Game Reserve situated in far northern Mozambique and hope to provide data to compare with the semi-arid Kalahari. We also continue to investigate the relationship between traditional beekeepers, honey gatherers and the honey badgers and collate information on their current worldwide distribution. There is still much to learn about these fascinating carnivores but here we present an overview of what we have learned so far.

Phylogenetic relations

Originally described by Schreber as Viverra capensis, the generic name Mellivora was coined by Gottlieb Storr in 1780, the name being based on the Latin mel for honey and voro, to devour. Early common names were the honey ratel, honey weasel and in India, the honey bear. The honey badger belongs to the family Mustelidae within which four to seven subfamilies are currently recognized.

Initially, the honey badger was assigned to the sub-family Melinae because of its superficial resemblance to the true badgers, but in 1902, it was transferred to the Mustelinae on the basis of skull morphology and teeth. In 1912 a kinship with the wolverine Gulo gulo was suggested. Its present position is in its own sub-family Mellivorinae, which contains a single living genus of which it is the only extant species. Its remarkable similarities to other badgers in form suggest parallel evolution resulting from a comparable way of life.

The question of subspecies has not yet been resolved with suggestions of as many as ten subspecies described from Africa alone. These subspecies are based primarily on size and pelage, predominantly mantle variation. Since most type specimens appear to represent individual variants in a polymorphic species and the white mantle darkens with age many of these subspecies are of doubtful validity. This is currently being investigated by James Rhodes, a Masters student at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Distribution and habitat

Honey badgers have an extensive range which extends through most of sub-Saharan Africa from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa to southern Morocco and south western Algeria, and outside of Africa through Arabia, Iran and western Asia to Turkmenistan and the Indian peninsula. Historically they are thought to be absent from only the driest center of the Sahara desert, the Mediterranean coast as far as the Nile Valley, and the Free State Province of South Africa. The distribution of honey badgers from southern Africa to India as a single species is exceptional almost rivaling that of the leopard. They live in a wide variety of habitats from the dense rain forests of Zaire to the arid deserts on the outskirts of the Sahara and pro-Namib, from sea level to the afro-alpine steppes in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia (> 4000 m).

Yet today, their status in most parts of this historical range (particularly West and Central Africa) remains uncertain. There is little doubt that honey badgers are now absent from many areas where they previously occurred e.g. parts of Morocco, Israel and populations may be becoming increasingly fragmented throughout its range. Certainly in South Africa, honey badgers are now thought to be absent from many parts of the country.

Diet and foraging behaviour

Despite their name, honey badgers do not rely on honey although the highly nutritious bee brood is certainly a sought after delicacy. Instead they are opportunistic, generalist carnivores. They eat a wide variety of prey ranging in size from small insect larvae to young antelopes and more than 65 different prey items were identified for honey badgers in the semi - arid southern Kalahari. These included insects, scorpions, reptiles, rodents, birds and the young of Cape fox Vulpes chama, black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas, Bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis and African wild cat Felis silvestris. In other areas they have also been recorded to eat tortoises, turtles, fish, frogs, young crocodiles and even a cheetah cub. There are strong regional and seasonal differences in diet but at least in the Kalahari, rodents and reptiles, including the highly venomous Cape cobra and puff adder provide the staple diet. While honey badgers are sometimes described as omnivorous, they were almost entirely carnivorous in the Kalahari with Tsama melons being the only vegetable matter eaten, and these appeared to be eaten primarily for their moisture content. This is in sharp contrast to the European badger, which eats a wide variety of plant (cereal and fruit) and animal material, but similar to the primarily carnivorous American badger Taxidea taxus.

Honey Badger with dead Mole Snake

In 1947 Stevenson- Hamilton (the first warden of the Kruger National Park, South Africa) added to the increasingly formidable reputation of honey badgers by reporting that they killed ungulates (buffalo Syncerus caffer, waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus and wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus) by castration and the resulting fatal haemorrhage. By the 1960’s this had become a common feature of species accounts and the naturalist George Sweeney took it a step further by recounting the story of four tribesmen who encountered a honey badger, which “hamstrung one of the men, clawed another and castrated him with one clean bite”. Some species accounts were then extended to include warnings that “it will attack a human adversary in the same way, swarming up the legs and, it is said, very often attempting to attack the genital organs” (Astley Maberley 1963). Although frequently recounted, no recent (post 1950) or first hand accounts of honey badgers castrating animals (or man) are available and this strongly suggests this is folklore. Certainly honey badgers were never seen to castrate an animal in the southern Kalahari.

Instead, and more prosaically honey badgers are solitary foragers that catch the majority of prey through digging and a slow meandering walk with the meticulous examination of holes and crevices characterizes foraging behaviour. On average females moved 8 km actual distance (2.4 km straight line) and males moved 14 km actual distance (6.2 km straight line), during a single period of activity in the southern Kalahari. On occasion males are capable of moving 40 km in a single day, which is astonishing given that they only stand 30 cm at the shoulder.

While honey badgers generally catch their own food, they may sometimes pirate food from other small carnivores and scavenge from the kills of larger animals. Adult honey badgers are also accomplished climbers and are able to raid raptor nests, bee hives and remove the bark from trees in search of lizards and skinks. Snakes are caught by following scent trails and through digging. Their acute sense of smell appears to be of primary importance when foraging, as their eyesight in particular is rather poor. When digging for gerbils with extensive burrow systems and hence numerous escape holes, honey badgers purposefully close potential escape holes with their front paws and then dig alternatively at two or three holes, chasing the rodent from one end of the tunnel to the other by their digging activities. By movements of the tail and “paddling” the hind feet in one hole, while waiting motionless at the edge of another hole, rodents may be chased towards the forepaws for easy capture.

In common with many other members of the family Mustelidae, the honey badger is moderately sexually size dimorphic with males a third larger than females and as expected given their larger body size, the males tend to consume more food per day than females. Yet both males and females consume on average 0.1 kilograms of food per kilogram of body mass per day. This amounts to an average of 600 grams of food per day for a six kilogram female and one kilogram of food per day for a 10 kilogram male. They forage every day regardless of whether the previous day’s foraging has been successful. On one occasion in the southern Kalahari a male badger weighing eleven kilograms consumed at least six kilograms of meat in one day comprising four large adult mole snakes, two adders and seven mice. The previous day the same male had eaten two and a half kilograms and the following day he ate more than three kilograms and caught an additional two Cape cobras which he killed but abandoned above ground before going into a burrow to rest.

For females, cubs are hard work even though only a single cub is raised at a time. For more than a year the cub is almost entirely dependent on its mother for food, even after weaning at two to three months. When cubs are three to six months old, they are fed a quarter of the food biomass caught by a female during a foraging period, and this increases to almost 50 % from six months until independence.

Honey Badger with Scorpion

Activity schedules

On average both males and females spend at least half of their time inactive, resting in a burrow or under a bush with two peaks in activity, one in the morning and one in the evening. The timing of these two active periods switches from predominantly nocturnal activity in the hot season to more diurnal activity in the cold season. Ambient temperature appears to be the major factor affecting honey badger activity schedules with extreme temperatures, either heat or cold avoided by behavioural thermoregulation i.e. by moving into a burrow. In addition honey badgers frequently sand bathe i.e. throw cool sand over their flanks and body whenever temperatures were high.

Social and spatial organisation

In depth information on social organisation and space use is currently only available from the southern Kalahari. Here, honey badgers are essentially solitary, non-seasonal breeders with no male involvement in parental care. Adult males have very large (548 km2) home ranges that overlap extensively with other males and encompass the smaller home ranges of young males (187 km2) and several females (138 km2). While it is expected that the home ranges of honey badgers in more productive environments will be smaller, there is currently no data to support this. Preliminary data collected from the Zambezi valley showed a minimum home range of at least 150 km2 for an adult male honey badger. We hope that our ongoing research on honey badgers in northern Mozambique in Miombo woodland will shed some light on this.

For a male honey badger, receptive females are the limiting resource and much of their time is spent roaming widely in search of these elusive females, particularly since cub dependency is so long. Yet finding a receptive female is only the first of several hurdles that a male has to overcome if he is to mate successfully.

Once a female has been located males must compete directly for access to the mating burrow. These interactions are usually ritualized and involve various attack and retreat postures and vocalizations, modulated by a loose dominance hierarchy rather than direct aggression. When overt aggression does occur, honey badgers have the potential to do great damage to each other with their long claws and powerful jaws. Females do appear to exhibit some form of choice in mating. While females are polyandrous i.e. they may mate with more than one male during a receptive phase, they have been seen actively fending off unsuitable males. In contrast they have also been observed to follow a “suitable” male’s scent from a latrine and excitedly approach them in reverse with their tail up. Mating typically occurs in a burrow over the course of two to four days and the successful male physically prevents the female from leaving the burrow during this time. Interestingly, paternity analysis has revealed that the dominant male only fathers half the cubs in the population, with sneak matings by subordinates responsible for the other half. While the length of the oestrous cycle is not known, latrine visits by females and male activity suggests that females are in oestrous or remain attractive to males for at least two weeks.

Breeding & cub development

Some sources have suggested that breeding is seasonal in parts of the honey badger’s range i.e. spring births and autumn matings in Turkemenia, USSR and that births were timed to coincide with the maximum availability of honey in Central Africa and Nigeria. However, given the lack of studies on the honey badger in other areas, this is yet to be confirmed. Certainly in the southern Kalahari and from records across southern Africa cubs are born throughout the year and female reproduction is considered asynchronous. The honey badger is also reported to exhibit delayed implantation in common with a variety of other mustelids including the American badger Taxidea taxus and European badger Meles meles. This is based on two gestation periods of 153 and 162 days recorded for captive honey badgers in Howlett’s Zoo, England. Yet in the southern Kalahari gestation is a maximum of 50 -70 days, similar to the 62 - 72 days gestation recorded for captive honey badgers in Israel. The long gestation times reported for honey badgers in captivity in England remain unexplained but it is possible that the honey badger displays delayed implantation in the more seasonal, northern regions of its extensive distribution i.e. Turkemenia.

To add to the confusion, the honey badger is commonly reported to have up to four young, yet despite an extensive literature search no actual records of more than two cubs have been found, although the honey badger does have two pairs of inguinal mammae. In captivity, litter size is generally one with rare cases of two cubs being born, once at the Howlett’s Zoo, England where both cubs died within a few days, and once in Israel. In the southern Kalahari, in all cases only a single cub emerged from the burrow (n = 20). This small litter size is unusual compared to other similarly sized mustelids, with the sea otter Enhydra lutra and the Indian smooth-coated otter Lutrogale perspicillata the only other mustelids recorded to have an average litter size of one.

Cubs younger than three months remain inside the den whilst their mothers go foraging and are carried in their mother’s mouth from one den to the next every two to three days. In the early stages of development, the cubs are almost hairless and only attain their characteristic black and white pelage at 3 - 5 weeks old. Suckling occurs inside the den and was only seen above ground on one occasion while a female was moving a young cub to a new den. The suckling position was unusual as the mother lay on her back, placed the cub on her belly with his tail near her head, and clasped her forearms around it. At 2 - 3 months of age the cubs accompany their mothers foraging and females revert to the typical pattern of sleeping in a different hole each night. Females have been seen carrying dead prey items back to the den from two months onwards and weaning is thus assumed to occur at this stage. At the age of 6-8 months male and female cubs already show marked sexual size dimorphism. As a result adult females may weight at least 2 kg less and appear noticeably smaller than male cubs during the final months of dependency. It seems likely that it is these mother-son pairs that have been confused with adult male-female pairs in the past, leading to the incorrect suggestion that honey badgers are monogamous.

Cub development is slow and juveniles remained with their mothers for at least 12 – 16 months before independence. This unusually long period to independence is probably related to the length of time required for a honey badger to perfect the skills needed to catch elusive rodents and highly venomous snakes. Certainly digging and climbing are both learned behaviour. The age of sexual maturity in males and females is still unknown, however female honey badgers disperse immediately on independence. A female cub in the southern Kalahari was located 53 km away from her natal home range within five months of dispersal. Males on the other hand remain within their natal home range for up to a year after independence before a sudden increase in home range size occurs. The trigger for independence remains unclear but appears to be either the presence of males during mating or the birth of the next cub. On the basis of tooth wear and physical deterioration of individuals during the study, it is predicted that honey badgers in the southern Kalahari do not live more than nine years, possibly even less, however honey badgers are known to live up to 28 years in captivity.

Communication

For honey badgers, scent marking is their main form of communication and both sexes have well-developed anal scent glands. Male honey badgers regularly patrol and scent mark at latrines (common olfactory “notice-boards”) within their home ranges and scent marking behaviour at latrines involves anal dragging, squat-marking) and belly & neck rubbing on the ground as well as the deposition of faeces and urine. Latrines are commonly placed near prominent landmarks such as trees but are also located near productive food patches. Female honey badgers generally only visit latrines when they are in oestrous and need to advertise their reproductive status to males.

During social interactions, vocalizations are common. Sylvia Sykes made detailed observations of tame honey badgers and described how the tongue modulated the common rasping call to generate a variety of calls at different frequencies and pitch in a captive honey badger. In free-living individuals we identified four broad types of vocalizations; a low, short rattle grunt used only by adult males when interacting with females and young males accompanied by pilo-erection, head high, tail up and a stiff legged posture, a high pitched squeal-rattle accompanied by teeth rattling used by young males and females when interacting with adult males (accompanied by a side on posture, with the head and tail held low), a short purr used as a contact call between mother and cub and lastly the threatening rattle-roar alarm used in the anti-predator display.

Predators and parasites

The bold, black and white pattern of the honey badger is thought to be aposematic colouring which, with the release of a potent smell from the anal scent glands provides a warning to potential predators. While honey badgers are commonly reported to have no enemies aside from man, there are reliable published accounts of honey badgers being killed by large mammalian carnivores. Far from being the “meanest animal in the world”, visual observations revealed a medium sized carnivore (6 –14 kg) that avoids confrontation with its predators. When challenged at close quarters, the relatively slow moving honey badger does put up a formidable display which includes the release of a strong scent from their anal scent glands, a loud “rattling- roar” and rushing movements towards the potential enemy whatever its size. This display is frequently successful at warding off potential predators, but is not fool proof and honey badgers are regularly killed by the lion and leopard despite having been seen chasing lion off kills and feeding alongside leopard. In addition cub mortality in the southern Kalahari is at least 47 % and the causes of death included starvation, infanticide (cubs killed by adult males) and predation.

Interestingly, honey badgers do appear to have some immunity to snake, bee and scorpion venom. A male honey badger bitten on the cheek by the highly cytotoxic Puff adder showed signs of severe pain but recovered fully within five hours. Yet honey badgers are occasionally stung to death by bees, especially when caught inside commercial apiaries.

Honey badgers are known to be carriers of rabies but do not appear to be vectors and may be affected by canine distemper. In addition a faecal sample from a Kalahari honey badger indicated infection with feline parvovirus.

Honey Badger Male looking for lizards

Conservation

Of particular conservation concern is the honey badgers slow reproductive turnover with only a single cub born every 16-18 months combined with a relatively high adult and cub mortality; only half the cubs reaching independence and considering their size the extremely large home ranges of both males and females. These ranges suggest that many protected areas may be too small to protect viable populations of honey badgers.

While the honey badger is not listed on the International Red Data List (IUCN 2002), they do appear on Appendix III of CITES for Ghana & Botswana and are variously protected in specific countries. In South Africa honey badgers are listed as Near Threatened in the South Africa Red Data Book and in the Cape Provinces, it is a “schedule 2” protected wild animal, which means that a permit is required to kill or move any individual. The honey badger is legally protected in Israel and Morocco where it is considered “Near Threatened” due to the non-selective use of poison and traps. It is also considered Endangered in Niger and rare in Saudi Arabia but its status in many other countries is unknown.

There is little doubt that the formidable reputation of the honey badger has to some extent exacerbated its persecution as it is considered highly aggressive and dangerous to both livestock and man. Apart from man, honey badgers are the most destructive mammalian predator of honeybees in Africa and conflict between both traditional and commercial beekeepers and honey badgers has been recorded throughout their range. Honey badgers are also actively persecuted by small livestock farmers and they are frequently inadvertently killed by the non-selective use of poisons and gin traps that are used to kill other problem animals of a similar size i.e. caracal Felis caracal and black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas.

In Africa they are widely used for traditional medicine because of their reputation for fearlessness and tenacity, and in areas where other favoured bushmeat species have declined i.e. western Zambia they are now eaten and traded as bushmeat.

But what about the “Badger-Friendly” Honey? Once the Kalahari field study was completed our attentions turned to the conflict between commercial beekeepers and honey badgers outside of protected areas, which was particularly prevalent in South Africa. Honey badgers can certainly cause substantial losses to beekeepers, raiding numerous hives in a single night. This is not a new problem, as throughout Africa wherever badgers still occur traditional beekeepers have for generations resorted to lifting or hanging their bark hives from trees to minimize damage.

While traditional beekeepers are remarkably fatalistic about the 2 – 7 % of hives they continue to lose to badgers each season, commercial beekeepers are less prepared to accept this level of losses. A survey of the beekeeper and badger conflict in Western Cape Province in South Africa, completed in 2001, revealed that honey badgers were capable of causing direct losses exceeding $60 000 annually in this province alone. More than 80% of beekeepers surveyed revealed that they had experienced problems from badgers and more than half admitted to killing them, with steel jawed leg hold traps and in same cases poison the method of choice. Predictably, hives were most frequently damaged by badgers in areas where they are placed on the ground in indigenous vegetation that supports both good bee forage and healthy populations of badgers.

The challenge was how to conserve this seldom seen carnivore outside of protected areas when it has no direct economic value or eco-tourism potential, difficult to census and is a serious pest in some areas. Fortunately the survey also revealed some surprising good news. Many enterprising beekeepers have developed cost effective and practical hive protection methods that minimize and in many cases prevent damage by honey badgers. These are solutions provided by beekeepers for beekeepers, and in some cases, they have been used for more than 50 years. With an average cost of only $ 5 per hive as an initial outlay, hive protection saves a beekeeper hundreds of thousands of rand in potential honey badger damage. While most beekeepers prefer to raise their hives on stands or trestles at least a meter off the ground to keep them out of reach of the badgers, they can also be secured on the ground with metal straps, pallets or wire. Given these hive protection methods, it has been shown time and time again that trapping is an ineffectual and expensive means of solving the problem and has no rational justification whether economic or ethical.

In May 2002 the Badger-Beekeeper Extension Programme, a three-year project, was initiated supported by The Carnivore Conservation Group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust and The Green Trust, an associated trust of WWF-SA. Beekeeping organizations and conservation agencies and NGOs, together with retailers and the public are working together to create a win / win solution to help both beekeepers and honey badgers in South Africa. The main aim is to provide advice and assistance to beekeepers having problems with honey badgers and provide reliable information on honey badger biology.

Following local media coverage of the badger-beekeeper conflict in South Africa, there was an overwhelming response from consumers asking how they could tell which honey was from badger-friendly beekeepers. As a response, a nationally recognized sticker and accreditation system was developed in cooperation with the South African Bee Industry Organisation (SABIO). Beekeepers who declare their subscription to the South African Bee Industry’s Code of Practice (which includes subscription to environmentally friendly and badger-friendly beekeeping) are allowed to display the “badger-friendly” label on their products. Designated extension officers from conservation NGO’s then audit these beekeepers on an ongoing basis to ensure compliance with badger-friendly practices. Through media and consumer pressure, two major retailers have already bought into the initiative and are insisting that their honey suppliers must be “badger-friendly”. Landowners, particularly fruit growers who utilize bees for pollination are also encouraged to only deal with ‘badger-friendly” beekeepers. These efforts are slowly bearing fruit with the majority of beekeepers on board.

This programme certainly has the potential of being a “good news story” for carnivore and farmer conflict, one that can be solved to the benefit of both parties. It provides a good example of how with cooperative effort from all sides, including retailers and consumers, industry practices can be changed to promote conservation. Of course, South Africa forms only a small part of the range of honey badgers, but it is hoped that this might inspire similar initiatives in other countries. If nothing else, a better understanding of the fascinating creature behind the myth will help their conservation. Information on all aspects of honey badger biology are still needed, both from wild and captive populations. If you have any information on honey badger or further questions please feel free to contact us.

Further reading

For more information about honey badgers and / or the badger-friendly initiative see our website www.honeybadger.com, or contact Joan Isham(joanisham@bermar.co.za) or Keith & Colleen Begg (ratel@iafrica.com).

The following sources provide additional information on honey badgers and were used in this article.

Astely-Maberley, C.T. (1963) The Game animals of southern Africa. Thomas Nelson and Sons, Cape Town.
Baryshnikov, C.F. 1988. The taxonomic position of the Mellivora species of the USSR fauna. Bulleten Moskovskogo Obshchestva Ispytateley prirody. Otdelenie Biologii 93: 50-58 (In Russian, English summary).
Baryshnikov, C.F. 2000. A new subspecies of the honey badger Mellivora capensis from central Asia. Acta theriologica 45: 45-55.
Ben-David, M. (1990) Phototrapping Honey badgers. Mustelid & Viverrid Conservation 3, 14-15.
Begg, C.M. 2001. Feeding ecology and social organisation of honey badgers Mellivora capensis in the southern Kalahari. Ph.D thesis: University of Pretoria.
Begg, C.M., Begg, K.S., Du Toit, J.T and Mills, M.G.L. 2003. Sexual and seasonal variation in the diet and foraging behaviour of a sexually dimorphic carnivore, the honey badger (Mellivora capensis). Journal of Zoology, London 260: 301-316
Begg, C.M., Begg, K.S., Du Toit, J.T and Mills, M.G.L. 2003. Scent-marking behaviour of the honey badger, Mellivora capensis (Mustelidae), in the southern Kalahari. Animal Behaviour 66: 917-929.
Begg, K.S. 2001. Report on the conflict between beekeepers and honey badgers, Mellivora capensis with reference to their conservation status and distribution in South Africa. Unpublished Report to Carnivore Conservation Group: Endangered Wildlife Trust, Johannesburg, South Africa. 81 pp. Available at www.honeybadger.com
Begg, K.S. 2001. Vicious Circles: gin traps in South Africa. Africa Geographic 6, 40-46. Begg, K.S. & Begg, C.M. 2002. The conflict between beekeepers and honey badgers in South Africa: a western Cape perspective. The Open Country 4: 25-37.
Black, R.A.R (1988) Some observations on a captive honey badger. The Naturalist 32, 14-18.
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Lloyd, P. & Stadler, D.A. 1998. Predation on the tent tortoise Psammobates tentorius: a whodunit with the honey badger Mellivora capensis as prime suspect. South African Journal of Zoology 33: 200-202
Marlow, B.J. 1983. Predation by the ratel Mellivora capensis on the chicks of the whitebacked vulture Gyps africanus. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 13: 24.
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Srivastava, S.C. 1964. A new host record for Strongyloides akbari and Artyfechinostomum sufrartyfex. Indian Journal of Helminthology 16: 24-26.
Steinel, A., Munson, L., van Vuuren, M. & Truyen, U. 2000. Genetic characteristics of feline parvovirus sequences from various carnivores. Journal of General Virology 81: 345-350.
Verwey, R., Begg,C.M., Begg, K.S. & Matthee, C.A. A microsatellite perspective on the reproductive success of subordinate male honey badgers, Mellivora capensis. African Zoology. In press.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all those numerous individuals and organisations that have financially supported, assisted and encouraged us over the last ten years of working with honey badgers.

In particular, for the ongoing Badger-Beekeeper Extension Programme we thank Joan Isham the project coordinator, The Carnivore Conservation Group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, The Green Trust, an associated trust of WWF-SA made possible by Nedbank Green, Leisure Kitchens and the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa.

For the Kalahari Research Project, we remain most grateful to The Carnivore Conservation Group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust and The Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria, particularly Johan Du Toit, Gus Mills and Pat Fletcher.

We are particularly grateful to all our sponsors who kept us out in the field: Southern Life Associated Ltd; First National Bank; the Davies Foundation; David & Carol Hughes; John Ruggieri; The Johannesburg Zoo and the Friends of the Johannesburg Zoo Trust; Klatzo & Waldron; The Elgro Hotel, Potchefstroom, Brooke Pattrick Publications; Neil Muller Construction; Environmental Advisory Services; Air BP Africa; Engen Petroleum Ltd; Beith Digital CC; Foto Distributors – Nikon.

Colleen Begg is a Research fellow at the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria.