Butterfly risks its life to drink crocodile tears in the Pantanal

Guests on a tour of a river in Brazil's Pantanal were treated to a view of something rarely recorded. A butterfly was seen fluttering around the face of a huge caiman, a member of the crocodile family, as it sunned itself on the sandy banks of the river. The obvious question was why a butterfly would take the risk of flapping around such a big set of jaws. A veterinarian in the group said she had heard that the butterflies sip the tears of crocs and caiman for the salt and minerals, as well as proteind in the mucous around the eyes.
On cue, the butterfly landed on the caiman's eye and began sipping away.
Butterflies have recently been documented drinking the tears of caiman. Although it is now believed to be common, the behaviour has rarely been filmed. These guests were seeing something quite extraordinary.
The caiman seems unimpressed with having a large insect on its eye. It blinks and tries to rid itself of the annoyance, moving closer to the water as if threatening to take a plunge just to get rid of its little friend.
The more time we spend observing the behaviour of animals in the wild, the more we realize that we have much to learn.