DESTRUCTION CAMPAIGN SOUGHTMILLIONS OF OPOSSUMS: COAST CASE FOR BOUNTY PAYMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 September 1949, Page 8

DESTRUCTION CAMPAIGN SOUGHT—MILLIONS OF OPOSSUMS: COAST CASE FOR BOUNTY PAYMENT

An estimate that there are already I 3,000,000 opossums on the West Coast j multiplying rapidly, has been made by Mr A. Dalziel, a member of the Grey District Acclimatisation Society Council, who will present a p'aper urging support for the introduction of a bounty for-the destruction of opossums at the forthcoming meeting of the South Island Council of Acclimatisation Societies. # Mr Dalziel bases his estimate of the infestation on the West Coast on trapping returns. He states:—“Trapping in the Westland Province over a number of years has yielded an approximate yearly average of 40,000 skins, mainly taken close to the inhabited areas, but the sharp decline in skin prices (particularly for the low-grade West Coast skins) has enabled the opossum to multiply in built-up areas without molestation. Broken Or spur country adjoining pakihi land is a favoured habitat, and trappers have taken up to 2000 skips from 500 acres in these localities in one season, giving a trapped population of an average of four to the acre. Trapping along roadsides has yielded an average of up to five to the acre. Some trappers have estimated as many as 10 to the acre in certain localities.

‘■From information collected over a wide area, a most conservative estimate would be an average of one opossum to-the. acre over the province or Mx'pobulation equal to 3,000,000. Th'iese' ntiinbdrs have reached an alarming stage, as over a two-year breeding season this number could be expanded to 6,000’000. Only when one gets well off th.e beaten path is the full damage caused by the opossum apparent—on the spurs and mountain sides a network of well-worn tracks extending from the rivers to the snow grass is opening up our bush for erosion.

Depredations In Bush “My attention was first drawn to the migratory habits of the opossum some 15 years ago. The Kopara country, which was free from opossum in 1934, was trapped in 1939-40, and individual trappers took 300 to 400 skins. Until recent years the bush growth consumed by the opossum was unnoticed, but today, due to the greatly increased .numbers, this animal is leaving his mark on our flora to an alarming extent. Until recent-years, owing to an abundance of his favourite food, particularly foliage from those trees with an oil content, he has been easily satisfied. Our rata comes into this group, the tips of the young shoots being a favourite diet, thereby cutting off the possible supply of new wood and ultimately killing the tree. They are also particularly fond of clover and will graze the roadsides or paddocks for this delicacy. On Mts Smart, French, and Paparoa ranges, they have set upon our mountain lily with relish, foraging on the centre or heart of the plant only. In fact, the abundance of food in- this particular area has enabled the animal to increase unhindered by any natural enemy to such dangerous numbers that it is now possible for the natural yearly increase to run into millions, with a disastrous 1 effect on our forests.

“Owing to the low grade of skin in this district, trapping for the market has little, if any, effect on the natural yearly increase. Likewise, the setting up of a system of paid killers would prove most uneconomic in a climate such as Westland, when . periods of heavy rainfall would immobilise workers for lengthy spells, besides also creating another pool of unproductive workers with heavy overhead expenses. “The most logical way to keep this animal in check, particularly in the bush country on the Westland slopes, is by a bounty on tails. There is available a potential army of opossum killers' readv to trap or shoot, as a spare-time hobby or sport, for a tail bounty. Youths, farmers, roadmen, bushmen, millworkers, etc., would destroy countless thousands, with no administrative expenses. By this method the cost is cut when the opossum numbers are depleted, but not so with organised workers. Cost Of Bounty System

“The sum of £50,000 spent on a bounty system at 2s per tail would account for 500,000 animals. If organised workers, at an all-in cost of £lO a week, kill 5,000 animals each per annum, it

would take 100. men a year to kill 500,000 for the sum of £50,000. “If we spend £50,000 at 2s per tail, we actually account for 500,000 opossums f'but if we spend £50,000 in a year on 100 organised workers, there is no guarantee that 500,000 tails will fall. For 100 organised men to kill 500,000 a year, it is necessary that each man should destroy an average of 20 animals a day for a working year of 250 days. ' „ , j “When America asked New Zealandfor an urgent supply of some thousands of deer skins during the war, the price rose quickly to 10s per lb. Hundreds of .spare-time shooters reduced the deer in the West Coast bush and hill country to negligible numbers; areas of bush where deer abounded were culled to such an.,extent that it was difficult to find a fresh hoof print. In 1944, when the price receded to 3s a pound, this army of shooters declared a truce with the deer, and today—four years later —we find these animals have filtered back into all the old haunts. The defined tracks in the bush and on the slopes are. again well padded with fresh hoof prints, despite the efforts of Government cullers.” Review By Committee At last night’s meeting of the council of the Grey Acclimatisation Society a vote of thanks was passed to Mr Dalziel for his work in preparing a case for the bounty system and a remit to be forwarded to the South Island societies’ meeting was approved. The department of Internal Affairs advised that the society’s representations to the Minister to institute an immediate bounty payment system for opossum trapping would be reviewed by a special committee at an early date. Members stated that it appeared as if some headway was at last being made, as the result of continued agitation.