TRAPPING OF OPOSSUMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19721, 22 August 1927, Page 10

TRAPPING OF OPOSSUMS

INDUSTRY AT RANGITOTO. SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS. A little-known industry flourishes' on Rangitoto Island. For about six weeks two parties of trappers .have been at work on the island trapping opossums. The industry is profitable, for the parties have averaged well ovei 100 skins a week. In the Southern markets the coat of the opossum realises a good price, and skins from Auckland have brought as much as 16s 6d apiece. The opossum is a well-known inhabitant of rocky Rangitoto. Frequently he becomes a nuisance to holiday-makers, for in the evenings he is not afraid to go right up to the little cottages that clusternear the wharf and he is something of an expert in the art of thieving. Launch parties visiting the island during the evenings frequently encountei the little animals, and many a fruitless chase has been the outcome of the meetings. The trappers go about the captura in a much more systematic way. They use ordinary rabbit" traps and generally dispense with bait. They set the traps on the branches of trees, after making a careful study of the haunts of their quarry, and very seldom is a trap found empty. The two parties have their own camps on the island and in the mornings they go the rounds of their traps, and bring the catches back to the camps for skinning. The skins are disposed of to an Auckland skin firm, which forwards them to the South to be sold Nothing definite can be learned of their ultimate destination. This is kept, as far as possible, shrouded in mystery, but there is a shrewd suspicion that many of the fur coats worn by Auckland ladies have their origin on Rangitoto Island.