Thursday 26 July 2018

I Have Often Heard Of The Term,

crocodile tears,


 but never turtles tears, or terrapins as they are called in the UK, but they do have them, 

 and that fact is appreciated by butterflies in the the Peruvian Amazon, 

 entomologist and adventurer Phil Torres hosts a popular YouTube Channel, The Jungle Diaries, where he shares insights and observations from his travels to remote areas around the world, recently, a trip to the Peruvian Amazon afforded footage of eight different butterfly species alighting on turtles to drink their tears,

the phenomenon occurs because the sodium in the tears is a vital part of the butterflies’ diet that’s not readily available in the foods they consume, You can follow along with more of Torres’s discovery-filled travels on Instagram and Twitter

above is the video of the adventure, 

 and yes butterflies also use caiman for their sodium,

 as you can see from photographer Mark Cowan’s amazing snapshots of a caiman sporting a crown of tear-drinking butterflies from 2016, turtles tears, who would have thought it?


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