Butterflies Found Sipping on Turtle Tears for Survival

It has recently been discovered that colorful butterflies like orange Julia and yellow Sulphur feed on the salty, sodium-rich turtle tears.

This bizarre finding has been made by biologist Phil Torres and a travel photographer Jeff Cremer in Tambopata, Peru. They saw a number of butterflies surrounding the head of a turtle and sipping its tears, which is a good source of nutrients for them.

Another observation made was that the turtles remain calm and unaffected while these butterflies sip the tears but their reaction is opposite when bees try feeding on their tears.

The lack of sodium-rich sources in Amazon made these butterflies adapt this habit of using turtles as the substitute. The Torres -Cremer duo saw a large number of butterflies stalking the heads of the turtles.  

"We thought it was hilarious," Cremer ,35-year-old, from Pueblo, Colorado, told Daily Mail.

"We're used to one or two butterflies on a turtle but these ones seem to be absolutely smothered in butterflies. I would say there were about 15 turtles in all up and down the river but there were loads of butterflies," Cremer added.

The duo observed this interaction between the butterflies and freshwater turtles called terrapins during the day, while the turtles were sunning. Not just tears, even the sweat of turtles contains high levels of salts, similar to humans.

The still turtles are the handiest source of tears for the butterflies, Torres, 27, described the flocking of these still turtles by butterflies as 'mud-puddling'.

"As you go further from the Atlantic Ocean, the general availability of salt decreases in the environment because there is less of it in the rain," Torres said.

"So, in the western Amazon region far from the Atlantic, odd behaviours pop up to account for this, including drinking the tears of turtles and caiman. The butterflies tend to attract each other, so if one butterfly is feeding, its bright colors invite other butterflies to that site to feed as well," he added.

Various experts say that even the turtles benefit by letting the butterflies gulp their tears as it helps them in cleansing and purifying their eyes.

Torres believes that these salt-craving butterflies would feed on human sweat too if it was made available to them.

"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," he said.

"Butterflies in this area will do anything for salt, including drinking from your sweaty skin or backpack. I bet that if you laid out with your skin covered and your eyes open, you may eventually have a swarm of colorful butterflies imbibing on your tears, too," he added.