Close X
Monday, November 4, 2024
ADVT 
Health

Where butterflies, bees feed on crocodile tears!

Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 May, 2014 10:38 AM
    Look at those crocodile tears in your kid's eyes more carefully. These are an abundant source of salt and other rare minerals and proteins for some!
     
    Yes. An enthusiastic aquatic ecologist Carlos de la Rosa has captured butterflies and bees feeding on the tears of a crocodile relaxing on the banks of the Rio Puerto Viejo in northeastern Costa Rica.
     
    He watched in barely suppressed excitement for a quarter of an hour while the crocodile basked placidly and the insects fluttered about the corners of its eyes.
     
    “It was one of those natural history moments that you long to see up close," said de la Rosa, director at the Organisation for Tropical Field Studies in San Pedro, Costa Rica. 
     
    Though bountiful in the ocean, salt is often a rare and valuable resource on land, especially for vegetarians. 
     
    It is not uncommon to see butterflies sipping mineral-laden water from mud puddles. 
     
    When minerals are rare in the soil, animals sometimes gather salt and other rare minerals and proteins from sweat, tears, urine, and even blood.
     
    “Those are the kinds of things that, you know, you do not plan for them, you cannot plan for them,” de la Rosa said in a peer-reviewed letter appeared in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

    MORE Health ARTICLES

    Oxygen injections to protect you from air pollution

    Oxygen injections to protect you from air pollution
    Drug injections are fine but oxygen injections? As the air pollution keeps getting worse, this is the future to protect yourself from airborne diseases.

    Oxygen injections to protect you from air pollution

    Believe it or not, Leeches can fix torn ear!

    Believe it or not, Leeches can fix torn ear!
    A 19-year-old woman in the US who lost her ear to a dog attack got it back with the help of a few leeches.

    Believe it or not, Leeches can fix torn ear!

    New insights on how brain develops memories

    New insights on how brain develops memories
    In a key study that may give insights into disorders such as schizophrenia and depression, scientists have studied our ability to store memories in brain during childhood.

    New insights on how brain develops memories

    Go for food with rough texture for a healthy you!

    Go for food with rough texture for a healthy you!
    In contrast, when made to focus on the calorie content, the participants consumed a higher volume of brownies when they were hard (vs soft).

    Go for food with rough texture for a healthy you!

    Robot sex to determine how life began

    Robot sex to determine how life began
    This may come straight from Ripley's Believe It or Not! Scientists have performed robot sex to find how life began on earth. Scientists used rat-sized robots to study evolutionary patterns over thousands of generations without them growing old in the process.

    Robot sex to determine how life began

    Internal body clock puzzle solved

    Internal body clock puzzle solved
    Our internal body clock, influenced by the exposure to light, dictates the wake-sleep cycle.

    Internal body clock puzzle solved