Born to bee wild: Honey badger feeds on wild beehives

DON’T be fooled by it’s friendly looks, as a honey badger’s nature is not as as sweet as its name

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Photographer Chris Jek captures the moment a wild honey badger found its lunch

Considered to be ‘The World’s Most Fearless Animal’ by the Guinness Book of World Records, the following set of rare images show a honey badger feeding hungrily on wild beehives in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

The brave badger was not fazed by the furious stinging bees

The photographer, Chris Jek,said: “A honey badger is a very elusive, small, omnivorous but ferocious animal known for taking on beehives to eat honey.

“Pictures of honey badgers feeding on wild beehives are very rare to capture as the behaviour has much more often been observed in man made beehive, but very exceptionally in the wild.”

Honey badgers locate their food by their acute sense of smell and digging with their long sharp claws

Honey badgers are notorious for their strength, ferocity and toughness and are known to savagely and fearlessly attack almost any kind of animal when escape is impossible, even repelling much larger predators such as lions.

Chris, from France, was driving on a dirt road following the Sabie River when he spotted the evasive animal on the side of the road.

Not only do they eat the honey, but also the main beehive structure

He said: ”The badger was about 30 metres away from me. I did not realise at first glance that it was sitting on a beehive. It was only in my lens that I noticed it was surrounded by furious bees. Switching off my engine, I could hear the bees buzzing in fury around the intruder.

Not fussy: Honey badgers are known to eat everything from beehives to small crocodiles

“The honey badger did not care at all about me. It was entirely focused on retrieving the honey from the hive. I could see the bees attacking it furiously but it was completely indifferent to their stings.”

Invincible: These burly animals are almost immune to venom and bee stings

The honey badger has a thick rubbery skin that helps protect it from the teeth of predators. The fearless animals also have incredibly powerful jaws, which allows it to eat every part of its prey, including the bones.

A honey badger’s jaws are even powerful enough to eat a turtle - including the shell - without difficulty.

Chris Jek said: "Switching off my engine, I could hear the bees buzzing in fury around the intruder"

The 52-year-old photographer said: “I had a once-in-a-lifetime piece of luck as I arrived just as the honey badger discovered the beehive, so I could follow the entire action from start to finish. Checking later on my cameras record, I found out that it took the honey badger seven minutes to excavate the honey, eat it and leave peacefully into the bush.

Some say that the honey badger's only enemy is man

“On top of that, I had a relatively clear view of the action, with no bush or branches hiding the view as it so often happens in the Kruger Park.

It took the honey badger seven minutes to excavate the honey, eat it and leave peacefully into the bush

“After it had its sweet breakfast, the honey badger stared at me again and then disappeared into the bush, leaving me amazed and fascinated by the incredible piece of luck I had to be exactly at the right place at the right time!”