It is hard to guess what a Honey badger weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Honey badger (Mellivora capensis) on average weights 9 kg (19.84 lbs).
The Honey badger is from the family Mustelidae (genus: Mellivora). It is usually born with about 210 grams (0.46 lbs). They can live for up to 26.5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 68.4 cm (2′ 3″). On average, Honey badgers can have babies 2 times per year with a litter size of 2.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The honey badger (Mellivora capensis), also known as the ratel ( or ), is a mammal widely distributed in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Because of its wide range and occurrence in a variety of habitats, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.It is the only species in the genus Mellivora and in the mustelid subfamily Mellivorinae. Despite its name, the honey badger does not closely resemble other badger species; instead, it bears more anatomical similarities to weasels. It is primarily a carnivorous species and has few natural predators because of its thick skin, strength and ferocious defensive abilities. It is listed as the “world’s most fearless animal” in the 2002 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
Animals of the same family as a Honey badger
We found other animals of the Mustelidae family:
- Chinese ferret-badger with a weight of 939 grams
- Wolverine bringing 12.8 kilos (28.22 lbs) to the scale
- African clawless otter bringing 19.16 kilos (42.24 lbs) to the scale
- Greater grison bringing 1.4 kilos (3.09 lbs) to the scale
- Cameroon clawless otter bringing 21.6 kilos (47.62 lbs) to the scale
- Asian small-clawed otter bringing 3.53 kilos (7.78 lbs) to the scale
- European pine marten bringing 1.3 kilos (2.87 lbs) to the scale
- Southern river otter bringing 7.5 kilos (16.53 lbs) to the scale
- Sea otter bringing 27.46 kilos (60.54 lbs) to the scale
- American marten with a weight of 878 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Honey badger
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Mellivora capensis:
- American badger with a weight of 7.84 kilos (17.28 lbs)
- Andean mountain cat with a weight of 8.13 kilos (17.92 lbs)
- Canada lynx with a weight of 9.73 kilos (21.45 lbs)
- Dingiso with a weight of 9.4 kilos (20.72 lbs)
- Western red colobus with a weight of 8.43 kilos (18.58 lbs)
- Asian golden cat with a weight of 7.73 kilos (17.04 lbs)
- Aders’s duiker with a weight of 9.25 kilos (20.39 lbs)
- Geoffroy’s spider monkey with a weight of 7.6 kilos (16.76 lbs)
- Sulawesi bear cuscus with a weight of 10 kilos (22.05 lbs)
- Mountain paca with a weight of 9 kilos (19.84 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Honey badger
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Honey badger:
- Large Indian civet with a size of 81.9 cm (2′ 9″)
- Tibetan macaque with a size of 60 cm (2′ 0″)
- Pacarana with a size of 75 cm (2′ 6″)
- Pampas fox with a size of 62.2 cm (2′ 1″)
- Sharpe’s grysbok with a size of 67.9 cm (2′ 3″)
- Greater long-nosed armadillo with a size of 55.7 cm (1′ 10″)
- Kirk’s dik-dik with a size of 65.5 cm (2′ 2″)
- Hoary fox with a size of 60 cm (2′ 0″)
- African clawless otter with a size of 80.9 cm (2′ 8″)
- Gray fox with a size of 60.3 cm (2′ 0″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Honey badger
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (2) as a Honey badger:
- Slender rat
- African wading rat
- Pampas cat
- Pygmy mouse lemur
- Durango chipmunk
- Turbo shrew
- Zempoaltepec
- Highland streaked tenrec
- Long-nosed echymipera
- Lesser bilby
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Honey badger
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Honey badger:
- Mongoose lemur with an average maximal age of 30 years
- Fallow deer with an average maximal age of 25 years
- African civet with an average maximal age of 28 years
- Common wallaroo with an average maximal age of 24 years
- Aye-aye with an average maximal age of 24.25 years
- Indian flying fox with an average maximal age of 31.33 years
- Blue wildebeest with an average maximal age of 21.5 years
- Sun bear with an average maximal age of 24.75 years
- Steller sea lion with an average maximal age of 30 years
- Binturong with an average maximal age of 22.67 years