This aerial shot shows about two thousand feet of Lake Natron in the Great Rift Valley, which straddles Kenya and Tanzania. The red color comes from algae that live in the alkaline waters and provide food for shrimp, which in turn feed flamingoes. The lake's alkalinity is so strong that no predators venture into it to threaten the millions of lesser flamingoes that raise their young there. In the late summer's low water, however, the alkaline waters become as caustic as pure ammonia, which...
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This aerial shot shows about two thousand feet of Lake Natron in the Great Rift Valley, which straddles Kenya and Tanzania. The red color comes from algae that live in the alkaline waters and provide food for shrimp, which in turn feed flamingoes. The lake's alkalinity is so strong that no predators venture into it to threaten the millions of lesser flamingoes that raise their young there. In the late summer's low water, however, the alkaline waters become as caustic as pure ammonia, which even the flamingoes can't tolerate.
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