Not Pleasant To Count Feet Of 5897 Opossums

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 93, 8 September 1950, Page 3

Not Pleasant To Count Feet Of 5897 Opossums

Some of the feet were bigger than others. Some were clean, some were spattered with dry “blood. But big and small, clean and dirty, they all smelled —a penetrating stench. The collective assault on the nostrils by 5897 opossums’ feet in various stages of decay. They were August’s tally of opossum tokens collected from trappers on the slopes of Mount Egmont. To handle them, count them, and then destroy them, is the unpleasant task facing Mr G. F. Atkinson, chief ranger to the Egmont National Park Board.

He is not happy, about the prospect. Neither are the trappers. They have been collecting the feet for a month, and in some cases have had to live with the tokens in their huts so that they could be kept reasonably dry. They want to know why they cannot return to the system of keeping the opossums tails to exchange for the bounty payment of 1/-. Before the recent increase to 1/-, tails were the accepted token When the increase came the right rear foot or paw became the acceptable token to counter any possible storage of tails in anticipation of

the increase. And to prevent doubling the trappers have had to submit both the right hind feet and tails for the first month of the campaign. The tails are easier and cleaner to handle, the trappers point out And they don’t smell as much as feet, which in most cases have pieces of flesh on them. Every attempt has been made to prevent the feet from becoming offensive. Trappers have tried cooking, baking and salting them; they have soaked them in naphthalene and kerosene, but the smell stir l persists. It fills the luggage compartment at the back of Mr Atkinson’s car and clings to the upholstery inside. It will probably still be there long after he has counted the tokens and disposed of them and will linger on until next month when the same procedure will be repeated. Unless, of course, tails become acceptable again as tokens.