OPOSSUM NUISANCE.

Forest and Bird, Issue 38, 1 November 1935, Page 13

OPOSSUM NUISANCE.

A game ranger recently stated that it was difficult to say which did the most forest damage-opossums or opossum trappers. The alien animals do not feed on air. There is no doubt about their doing extensive forest damage, not to say anything about many offences against native bird life. Opossums are kept more or less under control by the whim or caprice of fashion. If the wearing of furs go out of fashion there will be another big trouble in wild life affairs. The trappers with their deadly and cruel steel traps play sad havoc amongst kiwi, weka, and other native birds. The trappers themselves are apparently under little control in regard to native forests. The bark of a tree is its natural protection against fungoid disease, borer, and other pests, but this does not interest the average trapper, who will make a great blaze to mark each trap, then make a smaller one to write the trap number on; or, if he is so minded, he may make a number of blazes to denote the number of each trap. Having caught an opossum, a careless trapper will slash the top of a tree at a convenient height in order to hang a five-shilling oppossum on it while the body cools. Verily forest “management” is sadly missing in the field.