Turtle tears? A prime source of salt, and many butterfly species have adapted by perching on their face and sipping from the source. Although this is generally a common sight along the river, this image taken by our photo tour guide Jeff Cremer is the most adorably smothered I have seen, yet.
The
turtles are basking in the sun to collect heat and energy for the day, and the
butterflies find them by flying along the river. The turtles are ectothermic, so require heat energy
from the environment to warm up their bodies and get active for the day. Bees
also feed on turtle eyes, which seem to really bother the turtles, but they
don’t appear to mind having butterflies drink from them as much.
We also have the first ever video taken of bees feeding on the turtles, here:
While some people have said that the
turtle gets an eye cleaning in exchange, I’m don’t think that is very likely.
More likely is that this relationship is a form of commensalism, in which the
butterfly benefits from the turtle, and the turtle isn’t really affected either
way.
Butterflies in this area will do anything
for salt- including drinking from your sweaty skin or backpack. I’d even bet
that if you laid out on one of those logs with your skin covered and your eyes
open, you may get lucky enough and eventually have a swarm of colorful
butterflies imbibing on your tears, too.
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Hey, are you serious about that? Sounds like a fairy tale or a children's story. Anyway this post makes think and ask lots of questions. Why is it you can find salt there so easily? And butterflies in need of salt is somehting curious too --- what's the explanation for that? As fas as I know they need to feed on flowers and maybe small insects or other plants.
ReplyDeleteAnd why don't they look for salt in lyzards or chamaleons and other animals as well?
In the vidoe why do they take so long to notice there's another turtle nearby --- and only focus on one of them?
Well thanks for the info anyway
i can think of a lot of hypotheses to your questions
Delete1. Everything is a competition in the rain-forest/ salt doesn't rain from the sky nor do these animals dig mines, they live near no ocean so it makes sense why its so scarce.
2. most creatures need salt, a good example of what can happen if you don't have salt can be seen in mice, if you put a few mice in a cage then never give them salt they will begin to each each other to obtain the salt there body craves. Why? you probably wouldn't have to look far into google about that.
3. they very well may but not all animals produce tears or at least not enough to drink from a turtle however needs to lubricate his eye often as it has evolved to be used to being coated in water.
4. The other turtle may not have a lot or was never provoked to produce enough to be noticeable in the first place.
A correction .. why is it you can't find salt so easily there?
ReplyDeletebecause there isn't much salt there.
DeleteIt's the amazon, every resource is scarce because of competition.
DeleteActually, most butterflies get their salt by basking in drinking it from muddy locations. There is apparetly enough salt in dirt for butterflies to get their dietatry samples.
ReplyDelete