South Siberia, Russia - July 29, 2024

This is the moment a Siberian roe deer uses its large ears to swat away insects as they both compete for a salt lick that has been placed there by forest rangers to supplement the animals' diets.

However, salt licks are also extremely popular with insects, and the roe deer found itself competing with the flying bugs for the scarce resource.

The University of Oklahoma, USA, found in a study of dozens of grasslands published in 2019 that insects not only crave salt, but will actively search for it in their grassland habitats.

As a result, that explains why the deer has to use its ears repeatedly to swat away the flying insects that are also attempting to eat as much salt as possible.

The footage was captured at the State Sayano-Shushenski Nature Reserve of the West Sayan Mountains of south Siberia, Russia, and showed the animal enthusiastically licking the white salt lick on 29th July.

The Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) is native to Siberia and Mongolia, and is additionally found in Kazakhstan, the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, eastern Tibet, the Korean Peninsula, and forested regions of northern China.