OPOSSUM PEST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1938, Page 9

OPOSSUM PEST

MISCHIEF IN NATIVE FORESTS. EXTERMINATION URGED. The Forest and Bird Protection Society continues to receive complaints of the mischief done by opossums in native forests. At a recent meeting of the executive, a member remarked that it would be just as logical to farm rabbits for their fur on wide expanses of grasslands, as to farm opossums for their fur in the native forests, where the alien animals were a nuisance, which would become worse as time went on. The president, Captain E. V. Sanderson, said that it was nearly as important for the Department of Internal Affairs to wage a war of extermination against opossums as against deer. Another members said that the noise of the animals as they scampered about at night among the trees frightened native birds away from their nests to which they were unable to return in the dark, with the result that the eggs or nestlings were chilled and lost. Opossums were also accused of robbing nests while much berry food needed by the birds was devoured by these marauders. It was mentioned that opossums invaded gardens in outlying suburbs of Wellington, where they attacked various plants, particularly the young shoots of roses, of which they were very fond. The following resolution was adopted:—“That the executive of the Forest and Bird Protection Society wishes to draw the attention of the people of New Zealand to the evil of permitting opossums to infest native forests, where they injure trees and interfere with bird life. The executive urges in the national interest that protection should be removed from opossums, and active measures taken to abate the nuisance.”