Tree hollows in Tasmania A guide - CRC for Forestry

Selecting habitat treesDEAD WOODDead wood in thecanopy of a tree generallymeans that the tree hasexperienced some stress.Stressed trees do not healas readily as healthy treesand therefore hollowformation is more likely.A large, healthy tree with fewdead branches (right) and alarge tree with lots of large deadbranches which is, therefore, morelikely to contain hollows (below).Dead branches can also bedropped by the tree and ahollow may form where thebranch broke off. This meansthat the more dead branchesand the bigger the deadbranches you see in the canopyof a tree, the more likely thetree is to have a hollow.14Opposite page from top left to bottomright: trees with increasing levels ofsenescence. The crown starts out small,then grows, thins, the number and sizeof dead branches increases, the tree dies,loses its limbs and will eventually fall over.