THE incredibly salty and alkaline, volcanically heated water of Kenya鈥檚 Lake Bogoria may seem an inhospitable place to live, but it is home to a rich diversity of microbes 鈥� and vast numbers of flamingos that feed on them. This image was shot from a drone high above the crowded scene.
Bacteria provide the ecosystem with energy and colour: both blue-green cyanobacteria and purple Rhodobacteraceae are found in abundance. The cyanobacteria produce chemicals that are toxic to most animals, but they are food for lesser flamingos, which have a rare ability to metabolise the toxins. Apart from the blue-green pigments, the cyanobacteria contain a number of other pigments, including the carotenoids that give the flamingos their colour.
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The birds migrate to the lake in enormous numbers. In January, there were 1.3 million of them 鈥� one of the biggest populations anywhere in the world.
The flamingos drink and wash near the lake鈥檚 numerous hot alkaline springs, where the water is less salty. Their tough skin and scales protect them from the alkalinity. Lake Bogoria鈥檚 high salinity results from the absence of any river outflow. The lake swells when it rains and shrinks again due to evaporation during the dry season, but minerals from rocks remain trapped.
For this image, photographer Cristobal Serrano was named by the Society of German Wildlife Photographers as its European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018.
Photographer
Cristobal Serrano,
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐rowd-puller鈥�
