The world’s only honey badger cub born in a zoo over the past 12 months arrived on 26 June at Safari Park Dvůr Králové in the Czech Republic. Beyond being a major breeding success for one of the world’s rarest zoo carnivores, the birth also comes at a time when the species has unexpectedly become a cultural phenomenon in Italy, thanks to science communicator Barbascura X.
While most Europeans had probably never heard of the honey badger, millions of Italians have discovered the species over the past year through the videos of Barbascura X, one of the country’s most popular science communicators.
“Tasso del male”
By combining zoology, comedy and storytelling, he turned an obscure African carnivore into an internet sensation, affectionately nicknaming it the “tasso del male” (“badger of evil”) because of its legendary fearlessness.
Now, European zoo professionals have a story of their own. According to the international ZIMS database, fewer than 60 honey badgers live in zoos worldwide. Breeding them is so difficult that, over the past twelve months, only Safari Park Dvůr Králové has succeeded.
Born on 26 June, the cub is the fourth offspring produced by the same breeding female, reinforcing the Czech zoo’s position as one of the world’s leading institutions for breeding the species.
The challenge is not the animal’s fertility, but its biology. Honey badgers are highly solitary carnivores with strong territorial behaviour, and males and females interact almost exclusively during the breeding season. In zoos, this requires extremely careful management of enclosures, the timing of introductions and continuous behavioural monitoring, while cubs develop unusually slowly and remain dependent on their mothers for an extended period.
For now, the cub is still living behind the scenes with its mother. Keepers do not even know its sex yet and will have to wait several more months before it begins exploring the public enclosure. Because of their slow early development, very young honey badgers are affectionately nicknamed “housenka” (“caterpillar”), a reference to their stocky bodies, clumsy movements and habit of spending most of their time curled up beside their mother.
Looking at the cub today, it is hard to imagine that it will one day become the fearless predator that fascinated millions of Italian viewers. Yet this tiny “caterpillar” will eventually grow into the same animal that inspired Barbascura’s famous stories: a remarkably bold carnivore capable of taking on venomous snakes, hyenas and even lions with extraordinary determination.
