What do honey badgers look like?

Answer 1

Honey badgers are similar in size and build to the European badger, Meles meles. They are heavily built, with a broad head, small eyes, no external ears, and a relatively blunt snout, the female smaller than the male. Broad and powerful the legs are short, but the forelegs are well-developed, equipped with strong claws like curved knives which can be up to 40mm long and broad feet, 3.5 cm long with sharp edges, back-claws straighter, 1.5 cm long without sharp edges. The head-and-body length ranges from 60 to 102 cm, plus a tail of 16 to 30 cm. The animal's height at the shoulder can be from 23 to 30 cm. Adult body weights vary from 5.5 to 14 kg. There is a considerable difference between the sizes of the male and female, with males sometimes weighing up to twice as much as females. The weight range for females is 5 to 10 kg, while males range from 9 to 14 kg. The body colouration is a striking combination of silvery grey or whitish upperparts (from the top of the head across the back to the base of the tail), and black or dark brown sides and underparts. The grey upperparts (or mantle) are often whiter on the crown and around the edges, such that there is a white stripe separating the mantle from the black body (see photo). The mantle is often darker in older animals.