Ratel/Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) Fact Sheet: Distribution & Habitat

Historical range (from Begg et al. 2008 unless otherwise noted)

• Extensive range
• Extended through most of sub-Saharan Africa
• Inhabited Arabia and parts of Asia
• Iran west to Turkmenistan and the Indian peninsula
• Rare (at low densities) or extinct across most of historic range

Current distribution (from Begg et al. 2008; Vanderhaar and Hwang 2003 unless otherwise noted)

• Africa
• Western Africa, surrounding the Sahara desert
• Central, eastern, and southern Africa
• Spans the continent from west to east
• Believed absent from the central Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean coast (to the Nile Valley), and central portions of South Africa
• Arabian Peninsula
• Covers much of the peninsula
• Asia and India
• Western Iran, across the central Zagros Mountains
• Turkmenistan
• India and southern Pakistan

Habitat generalist (from Begg et al. 2008 unless otherwise noted)

• Rainforests
• Congo Basin
• Arid desert outskirts
• Around the Sahara and Namib
• In India, avoids regions with heavy rainfall (Gupta et al. 2012)

Elevation range

• 0-4,050 m (0- 13,287 ft) (Sillero-Zubiri 1996)

Adapted from www-d.-maps.com according to IUCN fact sheet. Click here or on map for detailed distribution (IUCN).

Begg et al. (2008)
Gupta et al. (2012)
Sillero-Zubiri (1996)
Vanderhaar and Hwang (2003)