Mineral lick

Many animals regularly visit mineral licks to consume clay, supplementing their diet with nutrients and minerals. In tropical bats, lick visitation is associated with a diet based on wild figs (Ficus), which have very low levels of sodium,{{cite journal | last1=Bravo | first1=Adriana | last2=Harms | first2=Kyle E. | last3=Emmons | first3=Louise H. | title=Keystone resource (Ficus) chemistry explains lick visitation by frugivorous bats | journal=Journal of Mammalogy | volume=93 | issue=4 | date=2012 | doi=10.1644/11-mamm-a-333.1 | pages=1099–1109| doi-access=free }}{{cite journal | last1=Bravo | first1=Adriana | last2=Harms | first2=Kyle E. | title=The biogeography of sodium in Neotropical figs (Moraceae) | journal=Biotropica | volume=49 | issue=1 | year=2017 | pages=18–22 | doi=10.1111/btp.12398 | jstor=48574994 | bibcode=2017Biotr..49...18B | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48574994| url-access=subscription }} and licks are mostly used by females that are pregnant or lactating.{{cite journal | last1=Bravo | first1=Adriana | last2=Harms | first2=Kyle E. | last3=Emmons | first3=Louise H. | title=Puddles created by geophagous mammals are potential mineral sources for frugivorous bats (Stenodermatinae) in the Peruvian Amazon | journal=Journal of Tropical Ecology | volume=26 | issue=2 | date=2010 | doi=10.1017/s0266467409990472 | pages=173–184}}

Some animals require the minerals at these sites not for nutrition, but to ward off the effects of secondary compounds that are included in the arsenal of plant defences against herbivory.{{cite journal | last1=Voigt | first1=C. C. | last2=Capps | first2=K. A. | last3=Dechmann | first3=D. K. N. | last4=Michner | first4=R. H. | last5=Kunz | first5=T. H. | year=2008 | title=Nutrition or detoxification: Why bats visit mineral licks of the Amazonian rainforest | journal=PLOS ONE | volume=3 | issue=4 | pages=e2011 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0002011 | pmid=18431492 | pmc=2292638 | bibcode=2008PLoSO...3.2011V | doi-access=free }}{{Failed verification|date=January 2025}} The minerals of these sites usually contain calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium.{{cite journal | last1=Emmons | first1=L. H. | last2=Stark | first2=N. M. | title=Elemental composition of a natural mineral lick in Amazonia | journal=Biotropica | volume=11 | issue=4 | pages=311–313 | year=1979 | jstor=2387925 | doi=10.2307/2387925| bibcode=1979Biotr..11..311E }}{{cite journal | last1=Black | first1=J. G. | last2=Mosquera | first2=D. | last3=Guerra | first3=J. | last4=Loiselle | first4=B. A. | last5=Romo | first5=D. | last6=Swing | first6=K. | year=2011 | title=Mineral licks as diversity hotspots in lowland forest of eastern Ecuador | journal=Diversity | volume=3 | issue=2 | pages=217–234 | doi=10.3390/d3020217 | doi-access=free | bibcode=2011Diver...3..217B }}{{cite journal|last1=Ayotte |first1=J. B. |last2=Parker |first2=K. L. |last3=Gillingham |first3=M. P. |title=Use of natural licks by four species of ungulates in northern British Columbia |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=89 |issue=4 |pages=1041–1050 |year=2008 |doi=10.1644/07-MAMM-A-345.1 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal | last1=Atwood | first1=T. C. | last2=Weeks | first2=H. P. | title=Sex-specific patterns of mineral lick preference in white-tailed deer | journal=Northeastern Naturalist | volume=10 | issue=4 | pages=409–414 | year=2003 | jstor=3858657 | doi=10.2307/3858657}} Mineral lick sites play a critical role in the ecology and diversity of organisms that visit these sites, but little is still understood about the dietary benefits.

The paths animals made to natural mineral licks and watering holes became the hunting paths predators and early humans used for hunting. It is hypothesized that these salt and water paths became trails and later roads for early humans.{{Cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925341,00.html|title=A Brief History of Salt|date=1982-03-15|magazine=Time|access-date=2018-04-16|language=en-US|issn=0040-781X}}

Nonetheless, many studies have identified other uses and nutritional benefits from other micronutrients that exist at these sites, including selenium, cobalt and/or molybdenum.{{cite journal | last1=Mills | first1=A. | last2=Milewski | first2=A. | title=Geophagy and nutrient supplementation in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, with particular reference to selenium, cobalt and molybdenum | journal=Journal of Zoology | volume=271 | issue=1 | pages=110–118 | year=2007 | doi=10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00241.x}}{{cite journal|last1=Ayotte |first1=J. B. |last2=Parker |first2=K. L. |last3=Arocena |first3=J. M. |last4=Gillingham |first4=M. P. |title=Chemical composition of lick soils: Functions of soil ingestion by four ungulate species |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=87 |issue=5 |pages=878–888 |year=2006 |doi=10.1644/06-MAMM-A-055R1.1 |doi-access=free }} In addition to the utilization of mineral licks, many animals suffer from traffic collisions as they gather to lick salts accumulated on road surfaces. Animals also consume soil (geophagy) to obtain minerals, such as moose from Canada mining for minerals from the root wads of fallen trees.{{cite journal|last1=Rea |first1=R. |title=Mining and geophagy of root wad soils by moose in winter |journal=Wildlife Afield |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=86–87 |url=http://www.wildlifebc.org/UserFiles/File/4_1_Rea.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325194218/http://www.wildlifebc.org/UserFiles/File/4_1_Rea.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-25 }}{{cite journal | last1=Klassen | first1=N. A. | last2=Rea | first2=R. V. | title=What do we know about nocturnal activity of moose? | journal=Alces | volume=44 | pages=101–109 | year=2008 | url=http://alcesjournal.org/index.php/alces/article/view/40/39}}

Artificial salt licks are used in the husbandry of livestock and to attract or maintain wildlife, whether it be for viewing, photography, farming, or hunting purposes.{{Cite news|url=https://hrcranch.com/managing-the-deer-herd-on-ranch/|title=Managing the Deer Herd on Your Ranch {{!}} Hortenstine Ranch Company|date=2017-10-03|work=Hortenstine Ranch Company|access-date=2018-10-03|language=en-US}} Maintaining artificial salt licks as a form of baiting is illegal in some states in the United States, but legal in others.{{rp|413}} Inadvertent salt licks may lead to unintended wildlife-human interactions.{{cite news |last1=Elassar |first1=Alaa |title=Canadian officials warn drivers not to let moose lick their cars |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/americas/canada-warns-moose-lick-cars-trnd/index.html |access-date=3 December 2020 |work=CNN |date=22 November 2020}}

Svärdsjö sheep licking salt in Dikarbacken in Falun Sweden.jpg|Svärdsjö sheep, an endangered Swedish local breed, licking salt

Image:salt lick 01.jpg|Block of salt mounted on a post in Sopot, Poland

File:Pilanesberg-Salt lick-001.jpg|Giraffe and wildebeest at an artificial salt lick in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, South Africa

The indigenous peoples of the Americas and the longhunter watched salt licks to hunt game. Many became well-known, including Bledsoe Lick in Sumner County, Tennessee; the Blue Lick in central Kentucky; 'Great Buffalo Lick' in Kanawha Salines, now present-day Malden, West Virginia; the French Lick in southern Indiana; and the Blackwater Lick in Blackwater, Lee County, Virginia.{{cite web|url=http://mylonghunters.info/blackwater-virginia|title=My Long Hunters - Blackwater, VirginiaBlackwater, Virginia - My Long Hunters|website=mylonghunters.info}}{{unreliable source?|date=December 2011}}

In Norse mythology, before the creation of the world, the divine cow Auðumbla licked salty ice for three days and uncovered Búri, ancestor of the gods and grandfather of Odin. On the first day as Auðumbla licked, Buri's hair appeared from the ice, on the second day his head, and the third his body.Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

• Saltern
• Zoopharmacognosy

{{reflist|30em}}

• Kurlansky, Mark (2002). Salt: A World History.Walker and Co. {{ISBN|0-8027-1373-4}}.

• {{commons category-inline|Salt licks}}

{{Salt topics}}

{{portal bar|Food}}

Category:Animal husbandry

Category:Edible salt

Category:Minerals