Flamingos.

They're so pink and namby-pamby, the mascot of Florida, tacky lawn ornaments, and cocktails on the beach.

They look silly with their strange beaks and long legs and their pink plumage.

Yet visit the soda lakes of the African Rift Valley, whose chemistry is so harsh hardly anything can live in it.

And what do you find?

Flamingos.

That's right.

Their strange looks are actually adaptations to dealing with some of the harshest chemical environments on earth.

So here's the deal.

Soda lakes are caustic, incredibly salty Lakes whose pH makes them nearly impossible for most animals to live in.

Yet flamingos choose to breed there.

75% of the world's lesser flamingos have their babies at Lake Natron in Tanzania.

Lesser is what the species is actually called by the way.

We're not just hating on some innocent flamingos here.

Other species of flamingos have similarly awesome capabilities but they're not as laser focused on breeding on this one caustic lake as the so called lesser species.

Soda lakes are named after the caustic chemicals dissolved in their water, not after your favorite brand of cola.

Soda lakes form in places where the Earth's crust contain large amounts of these chemicals thanks to volcanic activity bringing them to the surface.

The lakes have a limited inflow and outflow of water so the chemicals remain very concentrated and the rising and falling of water levels is mainly a result of evaporation.

The pH of these lakes often sits between nine and ten point five.

That's alkaline enough to burn unprotected human skin and eyes.

Like actual researchers exposed to this water have sustained injuries even while their flamingo subjects were just fine.

Practically the only animal that can survive here full time are alkaline tilapia, a fish adapted to tolerate high pH.

But even they retreat to the few springs that feed the lake sometimes.

Then there's our flamingos.

They have thickened, specially adapted skin and scales that help them resist burns.

They can even drink the lake water thanks to a specialized gland they have that helps them filter out and excrete the extra salts.

Oh and as long as the external springs help to dilute the lake water a bit.

But these harsh conditions here are perfect for two reasons.

One, besides the fish, basically no animals live here.

That includes predators that might like to snack on baby flamingos.

The birds wait to build their nest until evaporation drives a water level low enough to expose small islands in the center of the lake.

That way there's a sheltered place they can fly or wade to but potential predators still have to contend with that treacherous water, so where flamingo nests are is surprisingly safe.

Secondly, we keep saying that very few animals live in the waters of soda lakes, but some bacteria think it's just fine.

These include the cyanobacteria species that is a favorite food of the lesser flamingos.

Cyanobacteria are also known as blue-green algae, even though they're not algae, they're bacteria, and they're not always blue-green.

They're actually partly responsible for causing Lake Natron to bloom with vivid red and orange colors during the dry season.

Those red and orange colors come from a large family of molecules called carotenoids, the same pigment that give carrots their orange color, hence carrot-enoid.

You get it.

When flamingos slurp up cyanobacteria, the carotenoids could actually cause damage to their tissues, so their livers process the pigments and shut them down to where they can't do any harm.

Their feathers, turning them pink.

All flamingos get this from their diets, which can also include crustaceans and other sources of carotenoids.

But think about it.

Lesser flamingos turn pink because they've evolved to thrive off of some of the most chemically noxious hostile places on earth and have a slightly toxic snack.

And then they decide they liked it so much that they're gonna move in and start a family.

Which makes them pretty