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Originally Posted by Sterling_Bass  I've never seen that before. It was actually pretty funny. I'm immensely curious as to how the honey badger is able to sustain so many bee stings and even the venom from the cobra. That's great evolution. |
The differend neurotoxins of these snakes tend to have differend ways of messing with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Overly simplified, some venoms like cobratoxin bind with very certain receptors and by doing so the inhibit the victims neurotransmitters from binding with the same receptors leading to nerve paralysis. Some other neurotoxins inhibit destruction of the same transmitter at the receptor leading to tetany. Of course there are several other ways in which venoms can work too, but the point is that mutations of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are probably the reason why the honey badgers can withstand those snake bites. Cobras themselves have the slight receptor mutation and if I'm not mistaken, mongooses do too. So it pretty much has to be something similar with honey badgers. However, I'm not aware if this has been studied a lot, and the standard receptor mutation wouldn't probably help much with for example mamba bites, so the honey badgers might have some differences in the way their cholinergic neurons work. I've also no idea how they would be able to block dendrotoxins that block the exchange of ions on the neuronal membrane. Chances are, that with very certain snake species the honey badger could just be effed. If someone knows more about this, I'd be really interested.
I don't know much about bees so I've no idea how the badgers defend themselves against that or if they just tough it out. The very thick and loose skin would most likely help a lot.
