OPOSSUMS AND BIRDS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 51, 23 November 1928, Page 13

OPOSSUMS AND BIRDS

Sir, —In support of Mr. Tripp’s view that stoats and rats have done more harm to birds than any other animals 1 venture to_ give my own experience. In 1894-95 I led the first exploration of the Karangarua River, and crossing from that river into the head of the Landsborough River we made the first exploration of the southern side of this valley. The main object was to locate new passes into Canterbury which were below the summer snow line.

Some miles below the glacier at the head of the Lansborough River and 60 miles from the sea I saw a weasel or stoat sunning itself on a rock; the presence of the animal incidentally gave us the clue to a low pass in the vicinity. Proceeding down the river and on the Haast River stoats were more numerous, and the further we went down the valley the fewer birds we found. In those days two of us would be six or eight months from habitation in unexplored country, and could rely on native ground birds entirely for our food — we only carried flour and oatmeal—but I have been over some of this country again within the last' three years and did not see a bird of any sort. As lately as thirty years ago a flourishing export of wekas or woodhens was made by the Maoris of Jacobs River Pa to the North Island —these were caught on the Karangarua and Cook Rivers and further south —but now a weka is a rarity in the district. Kiwis and kakapa also have almost disappeared, yet in 1894 and 1895 they were everywhere in great numbers. I may be wrong, but I do not think the opossums have penetrated as far south as the Karangarua. Thus we see a total destruction of the wonderful bird life of that little known district due to stoats—possibly also to rats. Does not this support the theory that the stoats, and not opossums, are doing the damage?—l am, etc., ARTHUR P. HARPER. Wellington, November 20.