It appears to contain a stable ecosystem consisting of a population of endangered flamingos, some species of fish, and algae. Re-animated, alive again in death.”ĭespite its inhospitable environment, the lake is not lifeless. “I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life’, as it were. “The notion of portraits of dead animals in the place where they once lived, placed in positions as if alive again in death, was just too compelling to ignore,” Brandt said of his decision to photograph the animals. “There was never any possibility of bending a wing or turning a head to make a better pose - they were like rock,” he said, “so we took them and placed them on branches and rocks just as we found them, always with a view to imagining it as a portrait in death.”Ī fish eagle © Nick Brandt 2013, Courtesy of Hasted Kraeutler Gallery, NY The creatures, he said, were “rock hard” from the calcification. The entire fish eagle was the most surprising and revelatory find,” Brandt, who photographed these calcified animals in 20, told The Huffington Post in an email Wednesday. Nonetheless, flamingos are still at high risk staying amidst Lake Natron’s fatal waters.“Discovering these animals washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron, I thought they were extraordinary - every last tiny detail perfectly preserved down to the tip of a bat’s tongue, the minute hairs on his face. They only come around seasonally, when salt sediments accumulate all over the lake creating islands on which the birds can safely nest. These pink flamingos live on the abundant supply of cyanobacteria, and the lake’s isolated location and toxicity to predators make it the perfect place for them to build their nests.
However, this deadly lake is the only place in Eastern Africa where three quarters of the world’s Lesser Flamingo population breeds. The only creatures that survive in its depths are the alkaline tilapia (Alcolapia latilabris) and cyanobacteria (Spirulina), which gives its pinkish red pigmentation. The volcanic sediments in the lake originate from the nearby Great Rift Valley, and water temperature reaches up to 60 degrees Celsius.
With an alkalinity between pH 9 and pH 10, the waters of Lake Natron is highly corrosive. The calcified stone corpses of its victims washed out by the lakefront are a horrific thing to behold. Its lethal waters are only 3 meters deep, but it’s capable of eating out the life of any warm-blooded thing that immerses itself in its depths. No right-minded animal would dare step into Lake Natron of Tanzania.
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