This image is so bizarre that you may think it’s photoshopped. It’s not — it was taken by aquatic ecologist Carlos de la Rosa, who says it’s an extremely rare and unique photo. The butterfly and the bee drank the tears from a Caiman crocodilus for 15 minutes.
There’s video too:
According to De la Rosa — who is the director of the La Selva Biological Station for the Organisation for Tropical Studies in San Pedro, Costa Rica — crocodile tears are rich in proteins and salt, which is the reason why the insects drink them. He published a description and photos of the event in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. He says that, although there are reports of insects drinking crocodile tears, this is rarely documented by biologists: “It was one of those natural history moments that you long to see up close.”