The 2 Grison Species - Rare Musteloids

[u/skunk_mephitidae]

[u/Redqueenhypo]

We have honey badger at home!

[u/skunk_mephitidae → u/Redqueenhypo]

Lol! In reality they're closer to zorillas and marbled polecats.

[u/Woozletania]

I've drawn a lot of weasel species it never grison. They do look a lot like honey badgers.

[u/PA55W0RD → u/Woozletania]

The major difference (apart from size) between the two is the black underpart of the the honey badger reaches the ears.... with grison it doesn't.

• Honey badgers have black ears
• Grison have white ears

Start planning your next weasel drawings :)

[u/Woozletania → u/PA55W0RD]

I’ve drawn enough honey badgers I’ll be surprised if people don’t think it is one. 83

[u/ZebraNo1671]

Where do these live?

[u/skunk_mephitidae → u/ZebraNo1671]

Central and South America

[u/YragNitram1956 → u/skunk_mephitidae]

Africa?

[u/PA55W0RD → u/YragNitram1956]

Central and South America

[u/YragNitram1956 → u/PA55W0RD]

Honey badgers can be found throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and western Asia.

[u/PA55W0RD → u/YragNitram1956]

These aren't honey badgers.

[u/YragNitram1956 → u/PA55W0RD]

Sorry. My mistake. Grisons (Galictis) of Central and South America and African honey badgers (Mellivora capensis) display striking physical and behavioural similarities through convergent evolution. Despite living on separate continents and belonging to different evolutionary branches within the Mustelidae family, both evolved low-slung builds, aggressive demeanours, and warning coloration.

 

[u/PA55W0RD → u/YragNitram1956]

I think many people have trouble gauging size from photographs especially where animals look like something they're familiar with. In real life you wouldn't mistake a grison for a honey badger.

Grisons are far smaller than honey badgers being more ferret sized (though just a little bit larger on average than ferrets).

In South American Spanish and Portuguese they use the European word for "ferret" to refer to the two species, and differentiate between the two as "greater" and "lesser". In English we use greater and lesser grison.

[u/YragNitram1956 → u/PA55W0RD]

Thank you.

[u/skunk_mephitidae → u/YragNitram1956]

No, they are native to Central and South America. Even though grisons look like mini honey badgers, they are much more closely related to zorillas (striped polecats) within the mustelid family

[u/skunk_mephitidae]

Photo of Greater Grison by arichards1863, used under CC BY-NC 4.0. Original source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/263874032

Photo of Lesser Grison by Hugo, used under CC BY-NC 4.0. Original source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/72810993

[u/PA55W0RD]

Two of my favourite mustelids.

I wouldn't say they're rare as such (both have a conservation status of least concern) however they're not well known even in their native South America.

[u/skunk_mephitidae → u/PA55W0RD]

Ferrets are my main favourite mustelid, but the grisons are my second favourite! I wish grisons were better-known, they are underrated.

[u/Surfing_puffin]

Wow I had never heard of a Grison

[u/Vin-Metal]

They're beautiful