New Honey Badger at Prague Zoo

Prague Zoo decided to equip the honey badgers' outdoor enclosure with several additional rows of electric fencing, including a new power supply. Even so, the keepers watched the first steps of the spirited female with some anxiety. True to expectations, she wasted no time in investigating the enclosure's barriers. Photo: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Until recently, Prague Zoo was home to two honey badgers, both well into old age. The female was the first to die, last year, and the search for new animals began at that point. “Several European zoos managed to breed honey badgers last year, which is unusual. We eventually chose a female born at Olomouc Zoo, who is unrelated to the other European breeding populations. In several cases, these include descendants of our original Prague animals, which arrived a quarter of a century ago,” explains Pavel Brandl, Prague Zoo’s Curator of Mammals.

The young female is already showing the feisty temperament typical of her species. “After a month in quarantine, she proved to be very resourceful. Not only did she learn to enter her transport crate, but she even managed to close it behind herself. She has also demonstrated her technical skills in the enclosure, for example by unscrewing screws we didn't even know were there. They really are clever little creatures,” says Pavel Brandl.

These carnivorans inhabit deserts, semi-deserts and savannahs across Africa and Asia, and are not fussy eaters. They enjoy insect larvae, soft fruits and eggs just as much as small vertebrates and carrion. Photo: Tereza Mrhálková, Prague Zoo

Honey badgers are renowned for their fearlessness. Thanks to their passive and active defences, they can indeed fend off a cobra or even a pride of lions. These relatively small but powerfully built carnivores have exceptionally tough, thick skin that protects them from the fangs of venomous snakes and the stings of bees, whose nests they dig into. Their skin is also so loose that a honey badger can unexpectedly slip free of an opponent's grip and launch a counterattack. It can defend itself not only with its teeth but also with powerful claws and by deploying the foul-smelling secretions of its anal glands.

Prague Zoo has kept honey badgers since 2001, and succeeded in breeding its first cubs just three years later. Photo: Anna Žižková, Prague Zoo