Natron is usually a toasty 80 degrees Fahrenheit and blood-red from bacteria, the only living things that can survive its deadly alkalinity. Wildlife photographer Nick Brandt used the corpses littering the Tanzanian lake shores as posed models for a haunting new series of photographs. The lake's steeply alkaline waters are a graveyard for thousands of small birds. The long-legged waterfowl may flourish, but to any other living creature, Lake Natron is hell on earth. The Rift Valley's Lake Natron is the chosen mating ground of the endangered lesser flamingo. 'I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in 'living' positions, bringing them back to 'life.A calcified swallow from Lake Natron's shores. 'I unexpectedly found the creatures - all manner of birds and bats - washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania,' Brandt told NBC News in an email. Lately, it's earned a reputation for washing up the bodies of small animals on its shores, each wrapped in a delicate crusty shroud.īrandt was captivated by startlingly well-preserved bodies of bats, flamingos, eagles and swallows, and created a whole series of photographs to document the eerie phenomenon.

Natron lake mummies