CURIOSITY KILLED

Evening Star, Issue 21810, 28 August 1934, Page 6

CURIOSITY KILLED

A LUCRATIVE OCCUPATION TRAPPING OF OPOSSUM SOUTHLAND MAN'S EXPERIENCES “ Curiosity killed the cat ” warns the ancient adage, but should it not have been “ curiosity killed the opossum?” For upon the exploitation of this trait depends largely success in the trapping of that denizen of the bush, and the satisfaction of the demand tor Dame Fashion’s latest creations in fur coats. Back to civilisation after eleven lonely, but busy, weeks in the healthy atmosphere of Southland’s hinterland, a trapper who was interviewed by t tho ‘ Star ’ this morning gave an interesting account of the methods used to lure this inquisitive animal to its death.’ The necessary licenses being procured from the Forestry Department and the Post Office, ho established a camp in company Tvith another 'trapper on the northern slopes of the Eyre Mountains, between Lake Wakatipu and Lumsden., The preparatory arrangements entailed hard work; there was a suitable site to be chosen, the camp had to be pitched, there were the provisions to no purchased and transported, and lastly, the camp had to be made as comfortable as the amenities permitted. Experience was the first teacher. The presence of opossums in the locality was betrayed by various marks and signs on the forest floor. A trea_ was then selected and the bark stripped' down one side. Attracted at night by the White patch on the tree and also by the chips lying at its foot, the opossum would invariably make a close and thorough _ The sharp metallic snap of the awaiting jaws of a cunningly-laid trap, and curiosity would be satisfied. “ Sometimes -we caught fifteen in the twenty-five traps laid—it depended, of course, on the weather conditions and a certain amount of luck,” remarked the trapper, who said that in wet . weather, or during a snowfall, the opossum was .difficult to catch. A lengthy period of snow caused heavy mortality, and, in any case,; the traps were sprung by the snow falling from the trees; The setting of the traps was very important, success or failure depending on that operation. From experience ho had found that the best results were obtained if they were' laid along' a -ridge or on the fringe of the bush. Where there was no track the trees were blazed, and usually inspected once a day, though weather conditions often made this impossible. On the opening day of the season, June 1, six opossums were trapped, ten being caught the following day._ The men steadily worked ahead until 120 traps were laid in two lines, one on each side of the river.

The day’s toil commenced before dayJight, and the camp vras left at about 8.30. On the distance of the traps from the camp a lot, depended, but the two men were not usually back before dark, after which it was very easy to be lost. On one occasion his friend took a packhorse up the mountain with him in order to collect some traps. His non-arrival after a reasonable time resulted in a search, but fortunately he had managed to. get as far as the river, and was relying on the horse to lead the way back to the camp when he saw the beacon light of a torch, which guided him safely to their headquarters. During the heavy snowfall at the beginning of, July , the two trapper* were forced to evacuate their mountain retreat for the lower-levels of. civilisation, and it took one of them three and a-half hours to walk the ten miles to the nearest railway station, a raging blizzard restricting visibility to 100yds. It was two weeks before a return to camp could be made, this temporary loss of time being made good by the Acclimatisation Society, which granted an extension to their licenses. , ' The trapper explained the two methods commonly used to skin the opossum. The first way was to remove the valuable pelt as one would in skinning a sheep. The second way was in the manner of skinning a rabbit, the skin being forced on to a shape, and then cut down the side and placed on a board. This operation is never done straight after killing, as the fur comes out owing to the body being still warm. The skins must all undergo an examination by the local ranger of the Acclimatisation Society district in which they are caught, and then must be stamped by the Internal Affairs Department, which levies a charge of 9d for each stamped skin. At the sale last Friday _in Dunedin over 70,000 skins were disposed of. Although the opossum’s depredations made it a pest, the trapper said that they made splendid jpets and readily responded to friendship. He had seen a tame one which used to have a weakness for motor cars, and whenever it heard its master’s vehicle being taken out of the garage it would nimbly climb in also and scramble on to his back.