OPOSSUMS
Sir,-I listened this morning (April 16) to a short talk on the opossum broadcast to children from 2ZB, and although it was meant to be of an educational nature, the misleading statements it contained could only have been bewildering to the average listener. After comments on this animal’s wide distribution in Australia and New Zealand and the probability of the listener being quite familiar with it, came a description of the animal itself-a creature which except for being a marsupial seems to have little in common with the opossum as we in New Zealand know it. Our opossum does not produce from five to 14 young at a time, does not feed largely on frogs and birds, and does not sport a naked tail except possibly as the result of some accident. I suppose the description given to be of the true opossum (Didelphys), found naturally only in America. Far from being widely distributed in New Zealand, it has, as far as I know, never been introduced, so it can surely be familiar to very few of us.
D. R.
HAZLEWOOD
(Manaia).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530515.2.12.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 722, 15 May 1953, Page 5
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183OPOSSUMS New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 722, 15 May 1953, Page 5
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