Honey badger-like animal prowled South Africa 5 million years ago

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- The west coast of South Africa was home to a honey badger-like animal 5 million years ago, according to a new study published Monday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The modern honey badger, Mellivora capensis, is a feisty character, seemingly unafraid of bigger, stronger animals.

"Even large carnivores, such as leopards, hyenas, and lions stay out of their way," lead study author Alberto Valenciano Vaquero, paleontologist at the University of Cape Town, said in a news release.

It turns out, the honey badger and its relatives have been hanging around rough crowds for at least 5 million years.

Paleontologists recovered the ancient honey badger, Mellivora benfieldi, from an early Pliocene deposit near the town of Langebaanweg that has yielded a wealth of fossils, including the bones of saber-toothed cats, bears, hyaenas, jackals and mongoose.

Paleontologists have also previously recovered the remains of giraffes, elephants, rhinoceroses, wild pigs and a rich diversity of birds, fishes and marine mammals from South Africa's West Coast Fossil Park.

The honey badger uses long claws and sharp teeth to hunt small prey, such as rodents, but the mustelid -- a relative of weasels, otters and badgers -- also uses its claws to scavenge for berries, roots and bulbs, insects and small vertebrates.

The remains of the ancient honey badger were recovered 40 years ago, but they weren't examined in detail until recently.

"The new honey badger fossils we describe triple the number of known fossils and gives us a unique glimpse into its lifestyle and relationship to other similar mustelids," Valenciano said.

According to the new study, South Africa's ancient honey badger was distinct from similar badgers living in Central Africa and East Africa. Scientists estimate the Langebaanweg honey badger, though slightly smaller, lived and hunted much like its modern relative.

"The Langebaanweg fossils are at a crossroads of climate and environmental change, giving us insight into how animals adapted to these changes, as well as insight into carnivore evolution in southern Africa," said co-author Romala Govender, researcher at the Iziko Museums of South Africa.