Honey Badger vs King Cobra – Who could win a fight between the two fearless animals?

Honey badgers are usually regarded to be among the toughest animals on the planet.

They often end up fighting with powerful animals, and they frequently emerge victoriously or at least fight them to a standstill.

However, there are some animal species that are more lethal than others, like the king cobra. What happens when a honey badger faces off against a king cobra?

Some say honey badgers don’t care, and that reputation is hardly fair. In fact, these medium-sized members of the weasel family have a badass attitude.

Ratels, or honey badgers, are related to skunks, otters, ferrets, and other badgers.

King Cobra is the largest venomous snake in the world. They can raise up to a third of their body off the ground and yet rush forward to attack when confronted.

Thankfully, the king cobra is shy with humans and will avoid them if possible. It will also flare out its iconic hood and emit a hiss that sounds almost like a growling dog.

Size and Description

The honey badger can weigh between 13 – 30 lbs (6 – 14 kilograms) and reach 9 – 11 inches (23 – 28 centimeters) tall at the shoulder. Honey Badger Or Electric Eel – Which Is Tougher?

Despite its size, the honey badger is much stronger. It’s an animal built for battle.

Honey badgers have powerful 1.5-inch-long (4 cm) claws and teeth strong enough to crack a tortoiseshell.

The stocky creatures have a short, thick coat of fur with a broad white stripe running from the top of the head down the back and tail, and black on the face, legs, and bottom half of the body.

A layer of loose, thick skin surrounds the animal’s muscular neck beneath the fur, which protects the animal during fights, and allows it to wriggle around and defend itself when in the grasp of hungry predators. To defend itself, the honey badger possesses a secret weapon.

Two anal glands are hidden near the base of its tail and squirt a foul-smelling liquid.

The king cobra may grow to be 18.5 feet long (5.6 m), making it the largest venomous snake in the world.

On average, king cobras measure 10 to 12 feet in length (3 – 3.6 m). They typically weigh around 13 pounds (5.9 kg).

A king cobra’s skin color varies depending on its habitat. It has yellowish or white crossbars or chevrons on its skin, which can be yellow, green, brown, or black.

The belly is light yellow or cream-colored, while the throat is light yellow or cream-colored.

Like most cobras and mambas, the king cobra’s threat display includes spreading its neck-flap, raising its head upright, puffing and hissing.

Their deadly fangs are nearly 0.5 inches long (1.27 cm).

Range and Habitat

Honey badgers are native to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and India.

These incredibly tough and hardy creatures adapt well to a variety of habitats and can live just as well in a rainforest as they can in the mountains.

Honey badgers typically have large home ranges of about 193 square miles (500 square km).

According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute, male honey badgers have larger territories than females, and their territories might overlap with female territories.

Honey badgers don’t sleep in the same place every night, preferring to build a new bed in a tree, a rock crevice, or a hole dug into the ground.

King cobras can be found in northern India, eastern China (including Hong Kong and Hainan), the Malay Peninsula, and western Indonesia and the Philippines.

They prefer streams in dense or open forests, bamboo thickets, adjacent agricultural areas, and dense mangrove swamps.

They frequently stay near streams, where the temperature and humidity are stable. They spend over a quarter of their time in trees and bushes.

Food Habits

Ratels are omnivores but have also been described as fierce carnivores. They are good hunters, foragers, and scavengers.

Fish, birds, reptiles, particularly snakes, invertebrates, insects, fruit, and carrion are among the food they consume.

Ratels have been known to chase young lions away from their kills and steal their food.

A bite delivers venom from glands attached to the fangs. The flexing of a small muscle forces the venom through the hollow fangs into the victim.

Neurotoxins quickly paralyze the neurological system of the prey, particularly the breathing impulses. The paralyzed victim begins to be digested by other toxins.

The king cobra’s diet consists primarily of cold-blooded animals, particularly snakes.

Some king cobras adopt a strict diet of only one type of snake and refuse to eat anything else.

The king cobra eats mostly larger, harmless snakes such as Asian rat snakes, dhamans, and pythons up to10 feet (3 meters) in length.

Venomous Indian cobras, kraits, and even small king cobras can be eaten.

Behavior

The Honey Badger is a diurnal animal. Meanwhile, this badger is a solitary animal, typically having a large home range.

They are also nomadic, making daily foraging trips; male badgers can travel up to 27 km per day, but female badgers make shorter travels of about 10 km per day.

After foraging, adult males often congregate to socialize, communicating with each other by grunts, sniffing one another as well as wallowing in the sand.

However, because honey badgers are known to be aggressive animals, these interactions between males can sometimes grow into fights,

When one of the males tries to enter another’s burrow, they start their dominance dance with each one defending its right to the burrow.

Though it has a reputation for being aggressive, this snake is actually shy. If it is all possible, it would avoid people and other animals. It is classified as a solitary reptile.

The group is known as a quiver when they are observed together during the breeding season.

When trapped, it is more likely to attack people in self-defense or to protect its eggs. Nesting females, on the other hand, are more likely to strike without warning.

The king cobra kills less than five people each year within its range. Its weapon: venom.

When a king cobra bites, venom is released from glands attached to the cobra’s teeth. To impress a rival, male king cobras resort to wrestling.

Male combat is a ritual conflict in which the first one to push the other’s head to the ground wins.

Now in a battle between a honey badger and a king cobra, who would win?

Honey badgers are going to kill a snake in a fight in just about every case. They live in Africa, where they must confront some of the world’s most deadly snakes. Wolverine vs honey badger: who wins in a fight?

Rather than avoiding them, honey badgers regularly eat snakes and go out of their way to kill them and eat.

Honey badgers have evolved to be venom-resistant and prey on snakes. King cobras are not like other cobras.

While most cobras inject less venom, their venom is more potent. However, cobra-eating animals such as the mongoose, are immune to the venom.

Therefore, honey badgers can eat the king cobras. They are not, however, fully immune. They won’t be able to fight it if they have too much venom inside of them.

Honey Badger appears to be pretty much immune to most venoms but the sheer volume delivered by Ophiopagus Hannah could be a moot point.

The Honey Badger is known for its sheer tenacity and speed. Even if the honey badger gets bitten, it would probably finish the snake off before the venom takes hold.

After that, the honey badger would lie down, let the venom’s effects wear off, and then finish eating its meal.

This has been documented in several cases with the world’s deadliest snakes, including the king cobra.

Indeed, there is a possibility that the honey badger will die, but I think it is quite small. So in my opinion, the balance is in favor of the honey badger.