  We present a study of the effects of collisional dynamics on the formation
and detectability of cold tidal streams. A semi-analytical model for the
evolution of the stellar mass function was implemented and coupled to a fast
stellar stream simulation code, as well as the synthetic cluster evolution code
EMACSS for the mass evolution as a function of a globular cluster orbit. We
find that the increase in the average mass of the escaping stars for clusters
close to dissolution has a major effect on the observable stream surface
density. As an example, we show that Palomar 5 would have undetectable streams
(in an SDSS-like survey) if it was currently three times more massive, despite
the fact that a more massive cluster loses stars at a higher rate. This bias
due to the preferential escape of low-mass stars is an alternative explanation
for the absence of tails near massive clusters, than a dark matter halo
associated with the cluster. We explore the orbits of a large sample of Milky
Way globular clusters and derive their initial masses and remaining mass
fraction. Using properties of known tidal tails we explore regions of parameter
space that favour the detectability of a stream. A list of high probability
candidates is discussed
