Pilot Eradication Scheme For Opossums

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29052, 14 November 1959, Page 9

Pilot Eradication Scheme For Opossums

On Banks Peninsula and in Hawke’s Bay, pilot schemes to determine the most effective and economic methods of eradicating and controlling opossums have now begun. These schemes, which are scheduled to continue for a year, may set the pattern for opossum destruction on a national basis by rabbit boards.

In each case the experimental schemes are being operated by rabbit boards to which the Minister of Forests, Mr E. T. Tirikatene, has delegated his powers under the Noxious Animals Act, 1956, for the destruction and control of opossums. This project has been bom out of the concern of the Forest Service at opossum damage. At the end of last year the service took this matter to the Rabbit Destruction Council and the Minister then agreed to delegate his powers under the act to two boards nominated by the council—one in the North Island and one in the South. Local Board The South Islancl board asked to conduct a pilot scheme was the Banks Peninsula board, which has jurisdiction over about 250,000 acres of country. In a letter to the board in which he advised that £5OOO had been provisionally allocated to it by the Government to defray the costs of the scheme during the year period, Mr Tirikatene said that as the work to be undertaken by both boards would be primarily to gain complete information about opossum destruction work and techniques, particularly that applying to pastoral lands, the importance of keeping adequate records of all phases of the work and. of keeping the Rabbit Destruction Council and the Government fully informed of the progress of the

work would be realised. "From your opossum destruction operations my officers, particularly the noxious animals field staff, hope to gain the knowledge and experience and the pattern that will be necessary if opossum destruction work is eventually to be undertaken by rabbit boards in other districts,”'added the Minister.

On Banks Peninsula, where the scheme is being operated under the close scrutiny of officers of the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service, as well as the Banks Peninsula Rabbit Board, two local men with knowledge of the country have been engaged exclusively on opossum destruction and control since August 24. They are working in an area of about 60,000 acres south of Long Bay and Long Bay road. The area is surrounded on all but one side by the sea. The plan is for the men to work northward from the southernmost point cleaning up the opossums aS tar as possible as they go. In accordance with the Minister’s request, particular emphasis is being placed on the keeping of full records. Each day a record is kept of the weather, the type of work done, the area worked over, the nature of the country, including the vegetation and cover, and the

details of the kill. To this end diaries are being completed, and while the Minister has suggested two-monthly reports, monthly reports have so far been prepared and submitted to the Minister, the Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture. Cyanide poison, guns, dogs and traps are being -used by the opossum team. The secretary of the Banks Peninsula Rabbit Board, Mr P. J. Byrne, said this Week that while it was a little early yet to arrive at definite conclusions it did seem at this stage that more opossums were being, destroyed by the guns, dogs and traps than with poison. Second Time

In the yearly period Mr Byrne said it was expected that the men would be able to go back over the area a second time to pick up those opossums that had not been killed in the initial operation. Because of the restricted breeding of opossums—Mr J. Gibspn, livestock inspector of the Department of Agriculture, said this week it was believed that opossums gave birth to only one and certainly not more than two young a year—Mr Byrne said that it should be possible to clear them out more effectively and a great deal more cheaply than rabbits. In the first month of the scheme —from August 24 to September 23 —424 opossums were killed and in the second month the tally increased to 1053. At present there is still a bounty of 2s 6d a head on opossums but if eradication is extended over the country as a whole it is expected that the bounty scheme will be discontinued. A pilot scheme has also been started in Hawke’s Bay and the two boards are exchanging reports on the progress of their operations.