This is the scary moment a honey badger climbed on to a family’s dinner table while they were eating and even started drinking their coffee.

Lourens Van Den Heuvel, 41, took his parents on a trip through the Kruger National Park, South Africa, at the end of February when they stopped at the Tamboti Rest Camp overnight.

Tense footage shows a brash honey badger clamber on to their deck before scaling their table and coming up to eye level with Lourens’ parents.

Unperturbed by the presence of the humans, the brash mammal licked the plates and even drank coffee from one of the mugs on the table before taking off with an empty sauce bottle.

Lourens, from Johannesburg, said: “We had just finished having dinner and all the plates were still on the table.

“The honey badger had been around on and off for about an hour, checking our dustbin and those of our neighbours but he never came too close.

“He suddenly appeared up on the deck where we were and we all sat quite still because we didn’t want to antagonise him with any sudden moves.

“One can’t be too careful with wild animals and honey badgers have a bad reputation.

“My wife grabbed the leftover sausage off the plate and moved it out of his eyesight. She guessed that was what he was after and he probably smelled it on the table.

“We were scared but everybody kept a cool head and didn’t make any big movements or scream.

“He had small brown eyes and looked both enquiringly at me but also like he would take no nonsense from us. He was here for food and if we all behaved, he would be out of our hair in no time.

“He had long claws and his teeth were ivory coloured, long and sharp. He looked like he could teach a lion a lesson or two. I didn’t want to find out for myself though.

“He licked the beetroot off one plate, tasted a cup of coffee, knocked over a cup and a glass and eventually made off with the red plastic tomato sauce bottle.

“My heart was certainly beating quite fast by the time he left! There is no handbook for situations like these

“My parents hadn’t been to Kruger in about 40 years so it was quite an adventure for them.”