Lake Turns Animals That Touch It Into Statue-Like Creatures

They look like dusty statues, but the photographs of animals — mostly birds — taken by photographer Nick Brandt were once vibrant, living creatures.

Their fatal mistake? Taking a dip in Lake Natron.

Lake Natron, located in Tanzania, on the Kenyan border has a concentration of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, in addition to magnesite deposits, that result in this deadly phenomenon. According to New Scientist, these compounds are present in the lake due to a nearby volcano dumping ash.

“I unexpectedly found the creatures — all manner of birds and bats — washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. No one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake,” Brandt wrote in his photo book “Across the Ravaged Land,” according to Discover Magazine.

The outlet New Scientist clarifies that the statuesque animals were positioned for the photographs by Brandt, but that doesn’t make the state of the animals any less incredible.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/03/this-lake-turns-animals-that-touch-it-into-statue-like-creatures-no-really/

I am sooo confused....

Flying into glass would tell me that the animals die due to blunt trauma to the body. How does this happen with an animal sitting on a branch?   

Now that is cool. and weird. but cool.