Kookaburras in Tasmania

[Overlandman]

In a 1944 letter to a Tasmanian newspaper, a reader claimed credit for the kookaburras' arrival, saying he released the birds in 1902 after having the "misfortune to be bitten by a snake".
Interesting article.

Regards OLM

From ABC

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-08/ ... s/11844982

[slparker]

Interesting read. I have always wondered why some species never crossed into Tasmania. Late arrivals, like the Dingo, I can understand but I don't recall ever seeing a galah when I grew up in Tassy yet they are prolific on the mainland.
What conditions prevented the galah from crossing into tassy but not the black cockatoo?
i do understand that when Tasmania was a peninsula the conditions were cold and dry and the Bassian Plain was essentially desert terrain - perhaps that deterred many species from crossing.

[north-north-west]

Interesting read. I have always wondered why some species never crossed into Tasmania. Late arrivals, like the Dingo, I can understand but I don't recall ever seeing a galah when I grew up in Tassy yet they are prolific on the mainland.
What conditions prevented the galah from crossing into tassy but not the black cockatoo?
i do understand that when Tasmania was a peninsula the conditions were cold and dry and the Bassian Plain was essentially desert terrain - perhaps that deterred many species from crossing.

There are galahs here now. Regular visitors to my yard, especially in summer. My old field guide shows them being restricted to the mainland - and, like you, I am certain I never saw them whilst growing up down here - so presumably they are fairly recent arrivals. Possibly cage escapees?

[slparker]

Not sure if this apocryphal or not, but allegedly they were introduced into the Huon in the 1800s:

http://tassiebirds.blogspot.com/2006/06 ... ot_14.html

Just checking PLomley's word list of Tasmanian Aboriginal languages and there are words for the sulphur crested and black cockatoo recorded but nothing for the galah; which doesn't prove that it isn't native but is useful information.