--- title: Butterflies and Bees Are Known to Drink the Tears of Crocodiles description: Insects like bees and butterflies are known to get nutrition from drinking the tears of crocodiles and even humans, gaining salt and other minerals. canonical: https://time.com/84397/some-insects-drink-animals-tears/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-01T17:56:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:19.332Z og:title: Fun Fact: Some Insects Drink Animals' Tears og:description: They contain salt and other minerals. og:url: https://time.com/84397/some-insects-drink-animals-tears/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fun Fact: Some Insects Drink Animals' Tears twitter:description: They contain salt and other minerals. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Some Insects Drink Animals’ Tears by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka May 1, 2014 5:56 PM UTC by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka May 1, 2014 5:56 PM UTC “Crocodile tears” usually refers to fake sympathy—expressing sorrow when you’re actually experiencing schadenfreude. But actual crocodile tears can prove very useful for the insects that drink the liquid from the reptile’s faces. It might sound gross, not to mention dangerous (landing on a croc’s face can’t be easy), but both bees and butterflies are known to drink the tears of the caiman crocodile in Costa Rica. In fact, the tears are like “[sports drinks](http://news.discovery.com/animals/insects/tear-drinkers-love-when-animals-cry-140501.htm)” for the insects. That’s because the tears contain tons of salt and other minerals, rare nutrients in land environments. Insects take any source they can get—in Thailand, bees have even been known to drink human tears. (Yes, [animals do cry](http://news.discovery.com/animals/zoo-animals/do-animals-cry-130917.htm).) So next time you’re tearing up over a late-night movie, remember—that liquid could be going to a better purpose. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/84397/some-insects-drink-animals-tears/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/84397/some-insects-drink-animals-tears/"},"headline":"Some Insects Drink Animals’ Tears","datePublished":"2014-05-01T17:56:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:19.332Z","description":"Think of the tears as a sports drink for insects","url":"https://time.com/84397/some-insects-drink-animals-tears/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Bees","Science topic","nature","Insects"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/84397/some-insects-drink-animals-tears/","name":"Some Insects Drink Animals’ Tears"}}]}] ```