Although possums have been with us for years, nowhere in New Zealand have they and the forest yet reached an equilibrium. Forests continue to be downgraded as larger tree species are browsed to death, to be replaced by scrub, grasses and gorse. If the trend continues, then forests will end up being full of species unpalatable to possums, and the New Zealand bush will be a sickly and uninviting shadow of its former self.
To be fair, the possum does not create this devastation unassisted. Most probably it is the combination of these factors over time that results in heavy forest dieback.
The southern west coast and Fiordland are too wet for possums to be really comfortable, so these areas have been relatively spared. Carl Cooper, pest control officer for the Northland Regional Council, is responsible for dealing with all pest-related problems from Wellsford to North Cape.
Once you start looking, the damage to the crowns of the trees is obvious. Tonight, three of us are out to do some spotlighting. The little beam of my torch throws out just enough light to show us our way.
Suddenly, a noise. Something is running up a tree. We all stop in our tracks. Mounted underneath the barrel of the rifle, a. A big grey trunk is all we can see. And true, possums do get spotlight-shy.
A big moth is attracted by the light, and casts eerie shadows on the trees. After we compose ourselves, I shine the light into the branches of the old puriri again, and there it is. I bring the rifle up to my shoulder, take aim and pull the trigger. The animal hits the ground with a thump. We walk over to examine the carcass. In the north, with its warmer climate, abundant food supply and lower possum density, as many as 80 per cent of the females breed twice a year. In the Orongorongo Valley, east of Wellington, live the most-studied possums in the country.
They control the home ranges, and hand them down from mother to daughter. New Zealand possums are a pretty unsociable lot. Apart from the occasional hissing, paw-slashing scrap when animals cross paths, each individual keeps to itself for most of the year. The exception is during the mating season, when young bucks will be competing for available females. While possums generally go out of their way to avoid each other, they have no interest in defending a large territory for the sake of it.
They do, however, advertise their presence by rubbing trees with their scent glands particularly glands under the chin and a large gland on the sternum which produces a distinctive stripe on the fur.
The tiny honey possum, by comparison, is no bigger than a mouse. Aboriginal legend connects the possum to the man in the moon. Once upon a time, so the story goes, Moonan, a warrior, and his sons went hunting for witchetty grubs. The moon shone bright in the night sky, and they soon came across a big tree where they hoped to find many grubs. Moonan climbed to the top of the tree, and to his great joy found that he could reach the moon.
As his sons rocked the tree in their excitement, he nearly fell out of the branches, and to save himself he clambered on to the moon. The sons quickly climbed the tree after him, but by the time they reached the top the moon had drifted away.
Ever since, when the moon is bright, the sons climb trees to find their father. Through the ages they have grown sharp claws on their fingers, and a long tail from their spine. They have become possums. Perhaps the story needs a New Zealand ending, I wonder, as I walk along the forest track under my own moonlit sky, spotlight at the ready. One where Moonan comes back to earth, finds out what his sons have done, and shoots every last one of them.
Well, we can dream. New Zealand at that time was just a nondescript bulge on the backside of Gondwanaland, the huge southern super-continent. As the first marsupials were testing their pouches, Gondwanaland was breaking up. One section of it, the piece which would become Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, got most of the marsupials, but the large rafts that today we know as the Americas also carried off a fair few, and Latin America still has a rich marsupial fauna.
Perhaps the only American marsupial of which most of us have heard, however, is the opossum, because it is the only marsupial in the United States. There it is a relative newcomer, having moved north via Central America in the last , years.
When they have cleared all the food out of an area, they just move on. Young weaners, and especially males, emigrate to new turf, but once they have chosen their patch they usually stay there for life. There may be 0. The area will contain a number of den sites, and animals seem to rotate around them. Two possums may share a den on occasion, but usually they are solitary animals.
Each night, feeding occupies several hours, mainly between dusk and midnight, and to a lesser extent towards dawn, with snacks in between. When food is very scarce they may feed during the day, but generally possums will starve to death in their area rather that move elsewhere. Breeding is another major difference between Trichosurus and Didelphis. They have bushy, prehensile tails tails that can easily grasp tree branches and large, pointed ears. Possums are marsupials, so females have a pouch.
They are spread across most of the country and can be found wherever there is shelter and a good food supply. Kiwi Coast has some useful information about possum behaviour summarised below from their Northland Pest Control Guidelines , pp.
They also eat the nectar and berries that native birds like to eat so there is less food for the birds. Possums also carry a disease called bovine Tb tuberculosis which they spread to cattle. They also eat pasture so there is less food for farm animals.
Want to know if your control method is working? Major believes that some people blame possums for environmental destruction in order to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. Dixon agrees. They deserve to leave. Little and her daughter wish everyone could meet a possum. Hello possum: the New Zealanders keeping invasive marsupials as pets. Photograph: Peter Meecham. Go back to New Zealand, and hope is a different animal. It rests on poison, traps, and a whole lot of death.
Pest-free is still a goal of the future -- 20 years, minimum. But its champions are ready to begin. This includes possums, which are not rodents, but marsupials. We regret the error. As an additional point of clarification, what Aussies and New Zealanders are talking about is a different animal from what Americans would think of when they hear the name "possum.
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