If you've heard someone say "honey badger don't care" and you haven't seen the viral video it comes from, you might be wondering about the origin of the catchphrase. You can see that video at National Geographic News, with all its NSFW language. The original honey badger video, without the hilarious replacement commentary, is from a NatGeo wildlife program. Colleen Begg, the researcher who shot the footage, clears up some questions about the honey badger.
Link -Thanks, Marilyn!
Do honey badgers have bad attitudes?
Absolutely! But they need to, because they’re often surprised.
Honey badgers are very vulnerable. Often they’re digging—they’re quite small [weighing 10 to 20 pounds), they don’t see very well, their noses are in the ground—and they’re completely oblivious to what’s going on around them. When they eventually realize that the leopard is standing right behind them, they just put on this incredible show to try to protect themselves. They do the same in reaction to humans.
So that is where the bad attitude comes from. It’s a protective mechanism.
Link -Thanks, Marilyn!
They mention that also in an old QI episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKxuTrMmnhs#t=03m30s (go to 03m30s)
They also mention that it uses the Honeyguide bird to find honey and that in 2009 Scientific American said that pound for pound the Honey Badger is the worlds most fearsome land mammal.