Meet Stoffel - Africa's own Houdini

[Constance]

Daring, resourceful, tenacious, clever - this describes Stoffel the Honey badger. See him in this short video, constantly outwitting Brian Jones, a wildlife conservationist who protects and cares for injured honeybadgers in his park.

I couldn't help but laugh with admiration over Stoffels sheer ingenuity and audacity!

"...then he dug up the rocks, he'd rolled them with his back feet to the wall, and neatly piled them up high enough and then he'd get out.."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=c36UNSoJenI

[Constance]

In Africa, there is an expression, "As tough as a honeybadger".

According to the Guiness book of records, the Honey badger is the worlds most fearless animal.

Interesting snippet; Honey badgers have the ability to sleep off snake bites and still live. Scientists still do not know or understand how or why they are able to survive the most venomous of snake bites. Snakes make up a sizeable portion of a Honey badgers diet.

Here is the longer video version about the lives of Honey badgers. It really is a fascinating watch because there is still relatively little known about them.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=45EbX3XPuqM

[Gemma13]

I have had to live in the city for 10 years now and although I have lived in cities on and off throughout my 54yrs I do desperately miss living in the Australian Outback.

The open, wild, harsh, but amazingly beautiful land captures one’s soul.

I took time out to watch these videos, thoroughly enjoying them as they took me back. Let alone watching the remarkable tenacity of the honey badger. Thank you.

[ripple]

That is why we had a Honey Badger farm in the south of England during WW2 .

Before fighting abroad our Officers were sent down there to absorb camp escape strategies which the Badgers mentored most week ends . Two of them , Binky and Bonky , also taught German in the evenings if they were not going out .

[Constance]

Posted by Gemma13 (here)
I have had to live in the city for 10 years now and although I have lived in cities on and off throughout my 54yrs I do desperately miss living in the Australian Outback.

The open, wild, harsh, but amazingly beautiful land captures one’s soul.

I took time out to watch these videos, thoroughly enjoying them as they took me back. Let alone watching the remarkable tenacity of the honey badger. Thank you.

I do know what you mean Gemma13. I've spent many happy days in the Aussie outback. The land, even in all its wildness, and its harshness, it really gets to you. It is definitely seared into my soul.

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Posted by ripple (here)
That is why we had a Honey Badger farm in the south of England during WW2 .

That is amazing Ripple! Any more info on that to share? Did you know of someone that spent time there?

[AutumnW]

Ripple,

Oh yeah, Binky and Bonky! Their other official duty was to scout for land mines in occupied territory. They healed from their injuries in record time when they tripped them by mistake. I mean, you hear it over and over but it's no exaggeration -- 'Twas Churchill and Honey Badgers what won the war!

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Constance,

This is one of my favorite videos ever. I discovered it a couple of years ago and have sent it to everybody I know! My favorite part is where he is eying the wall and shuffling upright one foot to the other trying to figure out how he's going to get out! The mud balls? Too funny!

[ripple]

Posted by Constance (here)
That is amazing Ripple! Any more info on that to share? Did you know of someone that spent time there?

This puts me in a tricky situation because my book on this whole crucial chapter of WW2 skullduggery is due out soon .This Spring -- --- and there are a few bomb bursts I want to keep for the launch jamboree .

But I will tell you that it was my great grand father who set up and ran the farm . Loopy Ted , what a lunatic , but also a delightful scholar and wit who was part crazed from the gas attacks in the Somme during WW1 .

He swapped a photo of Queen Victoria dancing nude in Hyde Park for Binky and Bonky whom he immediately enrolled in a local Steiner school .Which is why they both were fluent in German as well as Scottish . Loopy was born in Glasgow and never got over that handicap .


Anyhow , I digress . Will get you some tickets for the launch bun fight if you can come over .

[Constance]

Posted by AutumnW (here)

This is one of my favorite videos ever.

Awww...It is pretty funny isn't it? Brian is such a great story teller.