Earth Science The Banded Stilt - A Wetland Survivor

From time to time, even the harshest environments surprise scientists. The Australian outback is one such place. As home to a diverse group of organisms, it sometimes plays host to a distant visitor, the banded stilt. When conditions in the Australian outback are right, a distant shoreline visitor, the Banded Stilt arrives by the thousands to breed. The mystery behind this behavior was finally documented when Cyclone Bobby started a chain reaction by flooding a dry salt lake in the outback. In this program we witness how a cyclone started a chain reaction, allowing a barren salt lake to flood, ultimately supporting a new brine shrimp population. We see how the food web works, as the mysterious banded stilts take advantage of the influx of brine shrimp to the area.