What's a Salt Lick?

A mineral lick is a place where animals can go to lick essential mineral nutrients from a deposit of salts and other minerals. Mineral licks can be naturally occurring or artificial.

What is the point of a salt lick?

Salt licks are deposit of mineral salts used by animals to supplement their nutrition, ensuring enough minerals in their diets. A wide assortment of animals, primarily herbivores use salt licks to get essential nutrients like calcium magnesium, sodium and zinc.

Why do animals need a salt lick?

Why do animals need a salt lick? Animals such as deer, sheep, goats, cattle, and elephants make regular visits to the salt resources in nature to get the minerals they need like calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, and sodium. There substitutes to natural salt licks which we will touch upon later in the article.