lachryphagy is the term used to describe the behaviour of tear drinking in nature, typically in environments - like the purvian amazon shown here - where sodium and other micronutrients are hard to find.
bees and butterflies need sodium for egg production and metabolic purposes, but their diets of nectar are low in salt. so the orange julia and sulfur yellow butterflies you see here turn to the salty tears of often stationary turtles and caiman.
and though the caiman and turtles seem to receive no reciprocal benefit from the interaction, they’re apparently happy enough to just help out. (x, x, x, x, x, x)
(via maybe-you-need-this)
