Extremophile is a word used to describe organism that can thrive in environment that would for sure stamp out other living things . Be it heat , salt , or altitude , they are found across the earth and David Attenborough ’s most recent collaboration with the BBC , A Perfect Planet , exhibits one such animal in stunning 4 grand Ultra HD . The characteristically pinkish feathers of Lake Natron ’s flamingos sit down in sharp-worded line to the canvass of Tanzania ’s famous sodium carbonate lake , which reaches a pH of almost 12 – nigh to the strength of household bleach . The otherworldly surround sits in the wake of Ol Doinyo Lengai , a volcano that overlooks the habitation range of these hard-core raspberry .
The soda lake gets its causticity from Na carbonate and other minerals that flow into the lake from the circumvent hills form the water system a secure alkaline . It would prove a deadly inclination for human , burning the skin and middle of most animals and spelling death for those who lingered too long . Despite this , a chemical group offlamingoshave adapt to breed amid the inhospitable condition of Lake Natron and now thrive in their one thousand thousand .
It ’s the most significant breeding site forLesser Flamingos(Phoeniconaias small-scale ) spark uproar from conservation group when plans were put in position to build asoda ash factoryat the internet site . These architectural plan have since been abandoned by the Tanzanian government in favour of the bird ’ shelter , who experience a life like no other in the strange red waters of Lake Natron .
ForA Perfect Planet ’s first sequence , Volcano , a work party were fly out to Lake Natron with an strange bit of outfit in tow : one ground-effect machine . The unconventional manner of transportation was need to hover the camera gang out to their fell ( some of which experience film producer articulatio genus - deep in salinity - laden piddle that illuminate on their leg hairs ) over the razor - acute soda flat that surround the lake .
“ Lake Natron is not just remote , it ’s also one of the world ’s most toxic and acrid bodies of water . The only dependable agency to make and shoot a nesting settlement , out in the centre , is by ground-effect machine and that is n’t something you ’ll find topically , ” read producer Huw Cordey in a imperativeness release about the BBC series
Reaching a hatful of birds that sit in the centre of such a deadly landscape painting is no mean feat , and in drill was one that required the help of the local Maasai tribe to attend with repairs to the hovercraft ’s many shredded doll . The resulting footage reveals the touch-and-go life cycle of these showy birds , whose chicks are sent off in the flamingo equivalent weight of a nursery group to march in the face of carnivorous marabou storks .
“ Two million less flamingos live in East Africa and all depend on Lake Natron – a unfriendly volcanic sodium carbonate lake – to breed , " say Cordey . “ It ’s one of the major planet ’s groovy natural history glasses and it was top of our lean to shoot for this sequence . regrettably , the flamingos only nest on the lake when the water levels are down enough for the centre to dry out out , and this may happen just once every five yr or so – though nobody knows for indisputable . "
A Perfect Planetcontinues this Sunday at 8 pm GMT onBBC Onein the UK . Find out where you may take in it around the worldhere .
