Love Bites from Honey Badgers

Today was an experience.

I was woken up by baboons on the roof and porch chattering and jumping around at seven this morning.  That was a crazy thing!

Horseback riding in the AM.

Tenikwa wildlife preserve in the PM.

The horseback riding was not my favorite.  I'm fully convinced my horse and I just didn't like each other. At all.  Really made me miss those UGA horses back home.  I mean, a lot.  Spent two hours going through African wilderness trying to keep him from not eating. Failure.  Even lost my camera lens cap somewhere. A little bit of me, always in Africa!

After lunch, though, headed to Tenikwa, which really specializes in large cats native to Africa.  You'll allowed to walk inside the enclosures with all of them (except the leopard, ha) and chill.  Hung out with wild African cats, servals, cheetahs, among others.  It was a great experience and I think I got some amazing shots from it.

It ended with a bang, though. I do always say go big or go home. I guess I got what I asked for.

I had the privilege of going behind the scenes and seeing the animal handlers work with their animals in rehabilitation.  So I got up close and personal with penguins and an adorable little bushbuck.  Hearing all their stories was humbling; knowing they could be released back into the wild was reassuring.

As timing would have it, I was just in time for the feeding of the honey badger.
The honey badger.  For anyone not familiar with just how hardcore the honey badger is, look it up. You won't be disappointed.

"Want to come with to feed the honey badger?" Oh, why not!  We meander our way to the animal's large enclosure, and there he is, highly anticipating that raw meat coming his way (no, not me).

I watch the handler enter the enclosure and shut the door behind him.  I figure I'll photograph from the safety of behind the electric fence.

"Come on in, yeah?" Oh, why not!  So I'm a little nervous, but I excitedly head on in to check out the honey badger, who is equally excited and heads straight for me.  I stand incredibly still as he sniffs all around my legs, circles me, judges me, and gives me a look of approval.  He runs back and forth between the handler and me as I snap away. 

A tour of other people passes and one guy asks, "Oh, can we go in with him?" to which the handler vehemently responds, "Oh, definitely not. This is a highly dangerous animal!  He isn't even normally part of the tour."

Awesome.

Honey badger comes back to me a good bit of times, always sniffing, but finally jumps up on my leg, licks me, and shuffles his way through my legs.  I take a snapshot, and he jumps up again and gives my leg a love bite.  Undoubtedly the most frightening moment of my life!  Never will forget.

Turns out honey badger DOES care! :)


-K.