KILLING OF OPOSSUMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21829, 18 June 1934, Page 10

KILLING OF OPOSSUMS

METHODS OF TRAPPERS SPEARS NOT USED LOCALLY No reports of trapped opossums ' being killed by spearing, as was claimed 1 to be the practice in Wellington, have been received by the Auckland Acclima- : tisation Society. The method almost i universally adopted in the Auckland 1 district is to stun the opossum with a ; blow on the head and then stick and 1 bleed it. Mr. C. M. Gordon, secretary of the society, said this method was the quickest and most painless way of dis--1 posing of the animals. Spearing certainly sounded a clumsy and less certain method. Only three. kinds of traps are permitted under the opossum regulations. J3y one of these, the running noose ; which must be fixed in such a manner that the head oft the opossum will pass through it, the animal is usually killed at once. The other two methods are by the ordinary rabbit trap, the American jump trap or trap of similar construction, and by the box trap. It is with the last type especially that trappers' killing methods are important, for the opossum is always found alive in this kind of trap. The trap usually consists of a benzine box baited with fruit, with a trap-door constructed so that it is sprung by the opossum as it enters, leaving no way of escape. The regulations provide that traps must be visited at least once daily. All three methods arc in use by trappers in the Auckland district, but trapping' is not carried out on nearly so large a scale here as in many southern provinces, especially Wellington. No opossums havo been liberated locally for many years, while there are so many orchard ists and others who are . permitted under the regulations to take opossums on their land at any time, that the animals are not very plentiful and trapping is usually carried on only as a sideline.