Surprising ways animals find sodium
August 2, 2022 7:29 PM   Subscribe

I am collecting a list of surprising, unusual, and beautiful ways that animals get sodium. So far, I have: What else is there in this vein?
posted by wesleyac to Pets & Animals (18 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Mountain goats and bighorn sheep licking the rocks at hot springs.
posted by ssg at 7:44 PM on August 2, 2022


Best answer: Belly dipping bats, tasty Subarus, and geophagic roos.
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:48 PM on August 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Some dogs like to lick their sweaty hoomans.
posted by oceano at 7:55 PM on August 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Goats licking dams
posted by slater at 8:02 PM on August 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


White tailed deer have been recorded licking/chewing on carrion or bones.
posted by Cyber666 at 8:02 PM on August 2, 2022




My cat trying to get into the Epsom salts. Naughty Kitty!!!
posted by brookeb at 8:17 PM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


My three cats licking the congealed bacon fat on the kitchen counter. Naughty kitties!!!
posted by jdroth at 8:22 PM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Hiking poles are a big target. Never leave them outside your tent in the wild if you sweat a lot. Those cork handles go fast.
posted by liminal_shadows at 8:41 PM on August 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


I'm not sure it qualifies as beautiful, but I have awoken in Fiji to find the large flying cockroaches drinking the tears/crust out of the corner of my eye.
posted by fairmettle at 9:32 PM on August 2, 2022 [3 favorites]




Learned the hard way that if you leave your shovel in the cow pasture when you take a lunch break the cows will lick every inch you’ve sweated on for the salt.
posted by lepus at 10:41 PM on August 2, 2022


Cows will also lick huge blocks of salt that are left for them by hairless apes who will hook them up to machines that will extract their milk. Milk that was meant for the cows' own offspring.

I mean, that's weird, right?
posted by hydrophonic at 10:52 PM on August 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


I biked out to the coast one year with my partner and we harvested salt from the ocean, near where it's harvested at scale. Some people thought this was surprising, unusual, and/or beautiful.

The camp hosts even kept bringing us all the spare firewood that other campers had left behind.

There was a fine white bitter mineral leftover in with our salt at the end (but separate enough to be a non-issue). It took me a while to figure out what it was. This is how I learned that the ocean has magnesium in it.
posted by aniola at 11:47 PM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


It's more than just moose who lick roadways for salt. I'd presume it's fairly common for many animals.

My parents told me recently about having to wait awhile for buffalo in the road licking the pavement for salt while they were out west in various parks.
posted by TheAdamist at 3:13 AM on August 3, 2022


Best answer: I've known about the moose for a while--they inspired this bredlik:

my name is moose
and i like salt
So wen the traffik
coms to halt

i stare yu down
stay whare yu ar
i hit the road
I lik the car

I accompanied that with a bredlik about something I'd heard about 20-some years ago:

i'm porcupine 🦔
i like salt too
brake flooid is
a salty broo

i sneek on up
do what it takes
i naw the lines
i lik the brakes
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:43 AM on August 3, 2022 [2 favorites]


My parents didn’t cook with any salt in my childhood so I always craved it. I used to lick my dad’s arm after he came in from a bike ride.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 11:28 AM on August 3, 2022


I have nothing new to contribute on salt acquisition, but as far as excess salt disposal...marine iguanas ingest so much salt in their diet, that they have evolved an impressive technique to get rid of excess salt.

They sneeze it out.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 7:56 PM on August 3, 2022


« Older T'choupi à Paris   |   Goodies to bring from BC to DC Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.


Tags

Share