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https://theconversation.com/large-old-trees-are-vital-for-australian-birds-their-long-branches-and-hollows-cant-be-replaced-by-saplings-225276>
"When we make roads, houses or farmland, we often find large old trees in the
way. Our response is often to lop off offending branches or even cut the tree
down.
This is a bad idea. The more we learn about large old trees, the more we
realise their fundamental importance to birds, mammals, insects, plants and
other inhabitants. More than 300 species of Australian birds and mammals need
large old trees to live.
Why focus on mature trees? It’s because they have many features that younger
trees simply don’t have: cracks, hollows, dead branches, peeling bark and large
quantities of nectar and seeds. The limbs and leaves that fall on the ground
make excellent homes for many small creatures.
Our new research sheds light on the importance of such grand old trees for
birds. We used lidar (scanning using lasers) to map small, medium and large
tree crowns in unprecedented detail. On average, we found large old trees had
383 metres of the horizontal or dead branches preferred by birds, while medium
trees had very little and young trees none. Some old trees had almost 2
kilometres of branches."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
