TulsaPets Magazine November 2023

34 TulsaPets • November / December 2023 in the eye — it’s considered threatening in gorilla culture and might earn you unwanted attention. And Outgoing! A CETE OF HONEY BADGERS. Listed by Guinness as the most fearless creature in the world, the honey badger isn’t a badger at all. These guys are related to weasels, and their thick, loose skin protects them from arrows, bee stings, and even machete slices. Known for their fierceness, honey badgers are also very intelligent and can make tools to benefit their whims — most- ly dragging and leaning large branches as makeshift ladders for raiding beehives. They find hives with the help of a little bird called a honey guide. Following this partner, the badgers open the hive, eat the honey and larvae, and leave the beeswax to the birds. The honey badger’s secret weapon is, well, flatulence. A honey badger’s poot is so noxious that when it is released, bees will faint. BINTURONGS. For the life of me, I can- not find a collective term for this unique Asian animal. However, these “bearcats” are one of the few mammals other than primates that have prehensile tails. They truly LOOK like a bear crossed with a cat, and their young are called binlets. The most intriguing fact about bin- turongs that inspired me to include them is that their anal glands secrete a scent to mark territory, and we with human noses translate the scent to that of buttered pop- corn. Look out, Orville Redenbacher! A CLUSTER OF BEETLES. The female Indian “lac” bug spends her whole life sucking tree sap and exuding a sticky goo. This goo, when gathered from 100,000 The honey badger is fearless, fierce, intelligent, and odoriferous. The binturong, nicknamed bearcat, is an Asian mammal that has a prehensile tail.