You see curious things in the outback. More than once we’ve observed a mass migration of a ‘slater’ type arthropod, thousands of these little invertebrates all moving across the scrub in the one direction.
We noticed these when we pulled off the road on our way to Longreach, Queensland. There were thousands and thousands of ‘slaters’ moving across the ground and all moving in the same direction.
It was notable that these creatures were moving across the country in broad daylight – also notable was the absence of predators. The ‘swarm’ hadn’t attracted the hordes of birds you might expect.
The phenomenon has been observed before – this Daily Mail article (in typical tabloid style) describes an even more intense migration, and around the same area.
I’m not sure what the scientific explanation behind these daylight migrations is…
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