Butterfly drinking turtle tears

Brightly colored butterflies surround turtles in the Amazon, Peru forest, to drink their tears.

Butterflies fly and walk around the turtle's head to drink turtle tears, one of the natural sources of sodium.This special phenomenon was recorded by photographer Jeff Cremer, marketing director of a company that explored the Amazon forest in Peru.

A few butterflies followed the spotted golden turtle and landed on top of its head.Turtle tears contain salt, especially sodium, a rare mineral in the west of Amazon.

Butterflies are too 'enthusiastic' to hide the sight of turtles.Turtle looks very embarrassing when determining the direction.The western Amazon has very little sodium minerals, because it is located more than 1,600km from the Atlantic Ocean, which is a major source of salt.So turtle tears become very precious to butterflies.

Not only butterflies, bees are also attracted by turtle tears.However, the turtle seems to be more disturbed by the buzzing of the bee wings.

Hatching turtles are organized with a few butterflies adorning the natural picture.Turtle bodies have excess sodium thanks to their meat diet.Other herbivores find turtles to get the missing sodium in their bodies, which creates a balanced harmony in nature.

Butterflies gather to harvest minerals from mud pools.Turtle's tears are not the only salt source of butterflies.Insects can also take salt from animal urine, rivers, puddles, wet clothes and sweaty people.

Butterflies obscure the view of turtles when drinking tears, making turtles vulnerable to attack by other predators.

Tears are a way for turtles to excrete too much salt from their bodies.Although they cannot clean their own tears or butterflies, they can handle this.