How do badgers survive snake bites

Like a skunk? Built tough The honey badger's 2-tone coat covers skin that also helps the animal survive. Honey baby Honey badgers usually give birth to one baby at a time. Their babies are called cubs. Venom-resistant Honey badgers have a super-strong immunity to the venom of snakes and scorpions.

A tail to tell A honey badger's tail measures 5 to 9 inches. Learn more about honey badgers at. Woodrats, as it turns out, are immune to rattlesnake venom. Makes sense, right? Which makes sense: Any animal that can kill with little more than a prick of the skin is worthy of our respect.

But there is a whole other class of creatures that does not cower before the venomous villains of the wild. These are the venom-immune. In fact, numerous critters have shown a honey-badger-like moxie when it comes to weathering the effects of chemical weapons.

In the mammalian realm, hedgehogs, skunks, ground squirrels, and pigs have shown resistance to venom. Some scientists even believe the lowly opossum, which wields a venom-neutralizing peptide in its blood, may hold the key to developing a universal antivenom. Because of this, predator and prey have been locked in an evolutionary arms race—venomous snakes are getting more potent bites, and immune animals are upping their defenses. There's less competition and snakes are much easier to catch when their main defense is rendered useless.

But why go after poisonous snakes instead of avoiding them? Not that honey badgers care about any of that. Its venom melts human flesh. No matter: The honey badger attacks and gets bitten in the process of putting the snake out of commission. The bite causes a little badger coma, but in a couple hours it wakes up and resumes the snake feast.

The bite that would melt human flesh could do nothing against honey badger skin. The animal got its name because one of its favorite meals is bee larvae, which is even deeper inside the hive than honey.