OPOSSUMS.

Shannon News, 14 March 1924, Page 4

OPOSSUMS.

A writer to the Farmers' Union Advocate states:—"My attention has been drawn to a paragraph regarding opossums. I consider that the allegations made in regard to the damage done by these animals to native flora and fauna are absurb.

The small bush here at Otanoinonio , (about sixty acres) is very representai tive of native trees and plants, with the exception of rata, and has been overstocked with opossums for at least | fifteen years. In spite of the heavy . stocking, nothing has been destroyed, ! and the bush during that period has regenerated to a very marked extent; "this was also the opinion of Professor I Kirk, biologist, Wellington, who spent two days examining it as to any possible damage caused by opossums. Af- ! ter a thorough examination he said that it was ' the best example of regeneration of native bush that he had seen on -his tour. All the varieties of young pines, totaras, and the various shrubs ate growing well, uninjured; also, the tiiis and the birds have been increasing during the last ten years to a very marked extent. This bush, prior to the time the •opossums were liberated in it, had a large amount of the undergrowth and most of the ferns destroyed by rabbits; I netted it in and destroyed the rabbits with the above results, viz., a rapid regeneration of the bush. As regards • orchards and apple trees, I have not had much experience, but there was a sma.llt orchard -.aftmost touching this bush and a shepherd living there in a cottage had a full crop of apples every year; the house was in the middle of the garden and he simply left an old collie dog loose in the garden at night, with the result that they troubled nothing. Also, for three years there was a plot of ground of about two acres in swede* turnips, potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, and peas just across a chain wide road from the bush, and during that time nothing whatever was injured, although- there was no protection from opossums whatever. In conclusion, from what I have personally seen, my opinion is that the opossum 1 , from a utility point of view, is one of the most useful importations to New Zealand, and so far is harmless to our native flora and fauna. As regards berries, of which he is alleged to deprive our native berry-eating birds, this is absurd on the face of it, as most of the bush berries are borne on the ends of slender twigs at the extremities of the branches to which the opossum cannot get access. The greatest imported enemies to our berry-eating birds are the starlings, the blackbirds, and the thrushes, as.witness nearly every small garden."