Galahs like to chew and that chewing can become damaging. My Grandfather used to hand raise Galah chicks which were given to him by timber workers who had felled nesting trees. He gave them away if he could when adult. He got into trouble once for releasing
them back to the wild because local farmers regarded them as pests.
I had a breeding pair he gave me for many years as a boy and youth. I used to supply them with a new semi-hollow log every year because they loved chewing at it so much. They enlarged the hollow and chewed off the bark all around the entrance. They took
a lot of care about that area, chewing off even the smallest rough piece and then rubbing it smooth with the side of their beaks. I always gave them leafy branches to play with and because they liked to eat lerp and scale and such. In the breeding season
they would get Eucalyptus leaves and rub them on the area they had smoothed outside the hole and even polish the smoothed wood with their cheek feathers.
They were very turned on to this activity and it seemed never finished to them. They would gradually remove all the bark from the log and extend the smoothed area up to a metre sometimes.
I often wondered what was the point of the smoothing. I though maybe it was just removing uncomfortable rough bits but Grandfather thought that in the wild it was to make it too slippery for predators such as lizards to enter the nest. Evolution of behaviour
is a fascinating thing. I am certain that predators were not in their minds and I am equally certain they liked doing it and were reluctant to stop while ever there was bark to chew off.
I think some of the recent postings border on confusing instinct with intent, if those are the right words. It may well be that the ringbarking of trees eventually produces dead trees with good nesting hollows but that takes many years. The galahs enjoy
the activity, some no doubt more obsessively than others. It is not however an intent to create future hollows. Personally, I just think they like doing it and that this energy is concentrated in the breeding season.
