Oryx - Salt makes you Smile
An adult Oryx cow in apparent "smile" mode after licking a salt rock / lick. This behavior is normal as the salt taste is so overpowering, that it makes the wildlife "smile". Remember, they do not really know salt in its pure form, not like this, and the contrast to normal tastes are extreme.
Salt, Sodium Chloride, does not really have any nutritional value, but it does provide "happiness" to wildlife. The moral of this photograph is simple. Happy wildlife makes for interesting photographs. Besides that, happy wildlife makes for better breeding, calmed behavior ... but unfortunately more protective, more territorial behavior from bulls.
The gemsbok or gemsbuck is a large antelope in the ''Oryx'' genus. It is native to the arid regions of southern Africa, but formerly some authorities included the East African Oryx as a subspecies. Its current population in South Africa is 373,000.
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