OPOSSUM SKINS

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17533, 15 October 1928, Page 9

OPOSSUM SKINS

WELLINGTON YIELDS ABOUT 60,000 TRAPPERS AND BUSH RAT PEST. So far there are no official figures available as to the actual number of opossums taken in the Wellington Acclimatisation Society's district during the season just closed, but those with some knowledge of the position believe the yield to be approximately 00,000 skins. If this is true it establishes not only a new record for the Wellington district, but one for any opossum district in the Dominion. As the highest price paid for skins this season was 23s (from the Waikaremoana district), it might be fair to.average the price of the skins taken in the Wellington district (which are of good quality), at about 10s, so that the yield for the season must have approximated some £30,000. One curious thing about the season was the number of bush rats taken in the traps. The Trappers' Association has reported to the Wellington Acclimatisation Society that the number of rats taken by trappers belonging to the association was 33,000, but the society's rangers estimate that the number must have been nearer 50,000. The rangers consider that the chief enemies of the native birds are these rats, and that the opossum is not a delinquent in that respect; indeed, they hold that the native birds flourish in opossum districts, because of the vast numbers of rats that are caught and killed in oposum trap. Another rather amazing thing about opossum-trapping is that there is never any bait of any kind used in the traps. These animals are in the habit of making (heir own peculiar little tracks or runs in the bush, and wherever these are discovered a series of trap are placed along the line, and it is the sight among the dead leaves and bracken of a piece of ironmongery entirely foreign to nature that tempts the furry creature to step or nose into the teeth. There is a sharp click—and it is all over.

It is interesting to recall that though the opossum has been commercially trapped for only six years past in this district, the first of the tribe were imported by the .local Acclimatisation Society forty years ago from Tasmania, the blue-brown species which are now producing such good money. Later some greys were imported from New South Wales, but these were not so aristocratic as those brought from Tasmania. . I On account of the big catches made in recent years, the Government was inclined to order a close season this year to preserve the new "golden fleece" that is developing, but as each season more are taken than in the previous one the Acclimatisation Societysees no reason for such action.