Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!andrewt
From: andrewt@cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Indoor Antics
Message-ID: <1106@cluster.cs.su.oz>
Date: 22 Jul 90 14:59:30 GMT
References: <332@spam.ua.oz> <674@mtune.ATT.COM> <339@spam.ua.oz> <1990Jul19.144321.5978@cbnewsj.att.com> <43163@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@cluster.cs.su.oz
Reply-To: andrewt@cluster.cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor)
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 32

In article <43163@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Smile when you say that)
writes:
>CITES doesn't prohibit export of Galahs and the other australian birds that
>are killed as pests. Australian laws do. The Galah isn't an endangered
>species -- Australia simply prohibits export of all birds. There have been
>movements for years to try to get this changed, the thought being that it's
>better for some of those birds to be exported as pets then be killed
>outright. Slow progress seems to be happening. Very slow.

In fact Galah are the reverse of endangered, they one of the birds that
has benefited from the man's changes to the environment.

I'd say change of laws to allow export of pest birds seems less likely than
it did a few years ago. I suspect the current US Galah price is largely based
on rarity and the profits would be much less after the first 1000 were exported.
Another problem is the birds being shot are (largely) adults. I've been told
that adult wild birds don't make good cage birds. Will a Galah that has
spent the 15 years flapping around Wagga Wagga make a good pet?

> ... domestic rose-breasted cockatoos (the local name for gahlah) ...

It used to be the official english name for them here too. Everyone calls
them galahs now. The word "galah" is also in common use to mean a fool
which doesn't show much respect for a bird which John Gould called the
most beautiful of all parrots.

>>and twice as pesty in australia run in the $3000 range in the US...

I'm sure it'd make a few truck drivers think to know that that grey and pink
lump on the highway was worth US$3000 before they splattered it.

Andrew