The Effects of Tactile and Visual Deterrents on Honey Badger Predation of Beehives

As human and elephant populations grow in Kenya so does human-elephant conflict. One of the most substantial contributors to this conflict, the crop-raiding behavior of elephants (Loxodonta africana), is alleviated through the use of Elephants and Bee Project\u27s beehive fences. A threat to these beehives are the honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) who try to obtain honey, causing damage to the hive and the hive to abscond. The objective of this study was to improve the effectiveness of these beehive fences through identifying and testing novel honey badger deterrent methods. On-farm experiments in Taita Taveta County, Kenya were conducted to determine if visual and tactile deterrents could reduce the frequency and severity of honey badger hive predation of the hives compared to a previously used method. Prior to the start of the study, 77.1% percent of hives absconded within a week following a honey badger attack. After the addition of the novel deterrents (motion activated light deterrent, cone baffle and hive cage deterrent), only 11.1% percent of the hives attacked by honey badgers absconded, suggesting the deterrents effectively reduced the amount of successful honey badger attacks. No relationship was found between deterrent type and amount of damage, nor for the duration and deterrent type. All deterrent methods are effectively preventing honey badgers from raiding hives with variance in the success rates and economic feasibility. This project complemented the Elephants and Bee Project\u27s ongoing research by providing much-needed insight into the role honey badger deterrents could play in preventing damage to the elephant deterring beehive fences. This research suggests management recommendations through these deterrents to not only reduce honey badger hive raiding but also to improve human-honey badger coexistence as well as human-elephant coexistence

A Description and Interpretation of Social Values Contained in Two of Robert Ruark\u27s Books, The Honey Badger and Something of Value

Two of Robert Ruark\u27s books, The Honey Badger, and Something of Value, proved their entertainment value, but what of the content of the writings? The Honey Badger was written of the United States and revealed certain patterns of behavior in a sophisticated society of the Eastern United States. Something of Value was written of East Africa and revealed something of Kenya society. Did these books reveal any basic behavior patterns which are similar or could be useful to leaders who are trying to effect social change

Ecology and etology of the honey badger (Mellivora capensis)

U ovom radu raspravljalo se o kararakteristikama, prehrani i ponašanju medojednog jazavca (Mellivora capensis), životinje iz porodice kuna. Medojedni jazavac je oportunistički mesojed koji se hrani najviše malim sisavcima, ali jede i beskralježnjake, zmije te manje gmazove. Vodu dobiva iz posebne vrste dinja. Izražen je spolni dimorfizam gdje su mužjaci za trećinu veći od ženke. Teritorijalan je,nema određene sezone parenja te mužjaci tijekom cijele godine aktivno traže ženku. Medojedni jazavci ne formiraju trajne parove i mužjak nema udjela u brizi za mladunca. Ženke rijetko rađaju više od jednog mladog, koje ima dug period ovisnosti o majci i izuzetno je ranjivo dok se ne osamostali. Medojedni jazavci međusobno komuniciraju uporabom mirisa i zvukova te obilježavaju svoj teritorij i putove kojima se kreću prilikom traženja hrane. Između mužjaka postoji hijerarhija dominacije ustanovljenja putem mirisa koje ostavljaju. Uz velike mesojede poput lavova i leoparda, najveći prirodni neprijatelj im je čovjek. Da bi se spriječilo polagano nestajanje vrste, nužno je pomno proučiti sve populacije i skupiti podatke kako bi se došlo do novih saznanja na tom području.This paper discusses the characteristics, behaviour and feeding habits of the honey badger (Mellivora capensis), an animal from mustelid family. Honey badger is an opportunistic carnivore who preys mostly on small mammals, but it also feeds on invertebrates, snakes and smaller reptiles. It gets moisture from a special kind of mellons. Honey badger is sexually dimorphic, with males one third larger than females. The creature is territorial and has no mating season so the males spend most of the year actively looking for females. They do not form lasting couples and males take no part in caring for the offspring. Females rarely give birth to more than one cub, wich has a very long period of dependency and is extremely vunerable until it gets independent. Honey badgers communicate with each other by scent marking and vocalization. They mark their territory, latrines and foraging paths. There is a hierarchy dominance between males established with the help of scents. Other than big carnivores as lion and leopard, their biggest natural enemy is man. To stop this species from further declining in numbers it is necessary to study all of populations and collect more data to advance our knowledge on honey badger

Feeding Specialization of Honey Badgers in the Sahara Desert: A Trial of Life in a Hard Environment

The honey badger (Mellivora capensis) is a medium-sized carnivore distributed throughout Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Turkmenistan, and India. However, available information on its ecology is very scarce. We studied its feeding ecology in the remote north-western Sahara Desert, based on the contents of 125 fecal samples collected during large scale surveys. Samples were confirmed to belong to honey badgers by camera trapping and genetic analyses. Barely 18 prey species were detected. The diet primarily consisted of spiny-tailed lizards Uromastyx nigriventris and U. dispar (72% of volume in scats). Secondary prey items were arthropods (14%), small mammals (8%), other reptiles (4%), and eggs (0.8%). Some small geographic and temporal differences were related to the consumption of beetle larvae and rodents as alternative prey. Camera trapping and distance sampling surveys showed that diel activities did not overlap between honey badgers and spiny-tailed lizards, suggesting that badgers primarily dig lizards out of their burrows when inactive. Consumption of spiny lizards by other sympatric meso-carnivores was < 6.1% of occurrence (223 analyzed scats); the honey badger behaved as a trophic specialist in the Sahara, probably thanks to exclusive anatomical adaptations for digging. We discuss the role of this circumstance minimizing the exploitative competition, which could allow the survival of this large mustelid in this low productive and highly competitive environment.This research was partially funded by Fundación Barcelona Zoo grant number PRIC 2017

Antenna S-parameter optimization based on golden sine mechanism based honey badger algorithm with tent chaos

This work proposed a new method to optimize the antenna S-parameter using a Golden Sine mechanism-based Honey Badger Algorithm that employs Tent chaos (GST-HBA). The Honey Badger Algorithm (HBA) is a promising optimization method that similar to other metaheuristic algorithms, is prone to premature convergence and lacks diversity in the population. The Honey Badger Algorithm is inspired by the behavior of honey badgers who use their sense of smell and honeyguide birds to move toward the honeycomb. Our proposed approach aims to improve the performance of HBA and enhance the accuracy of the optimization process for antenna S-parameter optimization. The approach we propose in this study leverages the strengths of both tent chaos and the golden sine mechanism to achieve fast convergence, population diversity, and a good tradeoff between exploitation and exploration. We begin by testing our approach on 20 standard benchmark functions, and then we apply it to a test suite of 8 S-parameter functions. We perform tests comparing the outcomes to those of other optimization algorithms, the result shows that the suggested algorithm is superior. © 202

Honey anti-inflammatory factor identified

Four different brands of honey wound dressings are now on sale internationally as registered medical devices, all made from manuka honey because of its well-established reputation as an antibacterial agent. What is not so well known is that manuka honey also has a potent anti-inflammatory activity, and that this is very important in the treatment of wounds

A case report on a human bite contact with a rabid honey badger Mellivora capensis (Kromdraai Area, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa)

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The nucleotide sequence data generated in this study can be found on Genbank.In South Africa, rabies cycles are sustained by both domestic and wildlife host species. Despite the fact that the majority of human rabies cases are associated with dog bite exposures, wildlife species can potentially transmit rabies virus (RABV) infection to humans. In July 2021, a honey badger (Mellivora capensis) from the Kromdraai area (Gauteng Province) bit a dog on a small farm. The following day the same honey badger attacked three adults in the area, with one of the victims requiring hospitalization for management of her injuries. The honey badger was subsequently shot and the carcass submitted to the Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary Research (ARC-OVR) for RABV diagnosis. A positive rabies diagnosis was confirmed and phylogenetic analysis of the amplified glycoprotein gene of the rabies virus demonstrated the virus to be of dog origin.The Rabies Diagnostic Project (P10000045) of the ARC-OVR and was partly funded by European Virus Archive global (EVAg), a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/tropicalmedam2023Veterinary Tropical DiseasesSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

The Official Student Newspaper of UAS

Campus Safety & The Climate Survey -- Literary Traditions: Children's Literature -- Taking the Plunge for the Glory Hole! -- The Enigma of Anderson Building -- A Far Cry from Homework -- Calendar & Comics

Summer diatom blooms in the eastern North Pacific gyre investigated with a long-endurance autonomous vehicle

Summertime phytoplankton blooms regularly develop in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, a region of open ocean that is far removed from any land-derived or Ekman upwelling nutrient sources. Limited direct sampling suggest these blooms are dominated by N₂-fixing diatom-cyanobacteria associations in the genera Rhizosolenia and Hemiaulus. The nitrogen fixing endosymbionts are hypothesized to be critical to the development of blooms in this nitrogen limited region. However, due to their remote location and unpredictable duration, prolonged in situ observations of the environment and biota are rare outside of the major time-series at Station ALOHA. In the summer of 2015, a proof-of–concept mission using the autonomous aquatic vehicle, Honey Badger (WaveGlider SV2), collected surface and near-surface (<20m) observations in the NPSG with hydrographic, meteorological, optical, and imaging sensors focusing on the abundance and distribution of these bloom forming symbioses. Hemiaulus and Rhizosolenia cell abundances were calculated using in-line digital holography for the entire mission from June-November. While the Honey Badger was not able to reach the 30°N subtropical front region where most of the summer diatom blooms have been observed, near-real time navigational control allowed it to transect two bloom regions identified by satellite chlorophyll-a concentrations. The two species did not co-occur in large numbers, rather the blooms were dominated by either Hemiaulus or Rhizosolenia. The 2-4 August 2015 bloom was comprised of 96% Hemiaulus diatoms and second bloom, 15-17 August, was dominated by Rhizosolenia diatoms (75%). The holograms also provide valuable insights into the occurrence of aggregated forms of Hemiaulus diatoms outside the identified Hemiaulus bloom area. The photosynthetic potential index (F[subscript v]:F[subscript m]) increased during both blooms. In addition, the diel pattern of F[subscript v]:F[subscript m] (nocturnal maximum; diurnal minimum) was consistent with macronutrient limitation throughout the mission with no evidence of Fe-limitation despite the presence of nitrogen fixing diatom-diazotroph assemblages. By the end of the 5-month mission, Honey Badger had covered about 3070 nautical miles (5690 km), taken 9139 holograms, skirted two major tropical storms (Guillermo and Ignacio), and reliably transmitted data to an ERDDAP data server in near real-time.Marine Scienc