Possums in NZ, why are there so many?

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Driver T

Actually, possum meat is a wonderful aphrodisiac.
A stew made from the meat will keep a man and woman locked in close embrace all night.

(It isn't really, but help spread the word to the Asian world that it is, and you could be saving the lives of many tigers, leopards, bears and other animals that the Asians assign magical sexual powers to without reason. But if the Asians thought that the feral brush-tail possum of New Zealand would be a fair substitute for those other animals, we would be saving the NZ forests too, as the demand for possum meat grew.)

Murphy

Like the other 2 said. In Australia, the have snakes, crocodiles etc which could kill a possum. The only predator possums in NZ have are cars.

mclarenman

As the other person said, they have no predators.
also the hippies dont like using 1080 poison to kill them off.
they have taken a fancey to our wouderful natural bush and trees. they strip the trees bare of all the leaves and the tree then dies. you just have to go up the west coast and you will see all the dead trees killed by possums. KILL ALL POSSUMS!!!
i find it funny thet in Australia they are a protected animal and in NZ they are a pest.

WM6Wizard

They were introduced as a foreign species and they have no natural predators.

Nikita

As in Australia they were introduced by the British - unlike Australia which has loads of natural predators (snakes being the main one and other wild carnivores) New Zealand is free of such things - the authorities try laying traps for rabbits and possums which destroy native bird eggs but humans are the possums only predators here which is why they thrive so much. Also I think the climate (wet throughout most of the year) suits them and lots of bird food for them as NZ has an incredible bird population.

Luke L

NZers hate them so much cos they are destroying the vegetation. All the land in the world has been inhabited by man for 70 million years except for NZ until 1500 years ago when the first polynesians reached its shores. Ever since then the delicate ecology of NZ has been affected by foreign stuff that shouldnt be there. like the possums. Its so sad that people are so ignorant.

jobby1111

I'm Scottish and just back from a trip to NZ, and I was really shocked at how much people hated the poor possums! I understand that they are responsible for destruction of beautiful plantlife, which can't be allowed to go on unrestricted, but it's not the possum's fault! Surely there are more humane ways to deal with the problem which humans created?
I got the impression that people who care about animal welfare and would not wear fur normally, hate possums and would happily wear possum fur. This strikes me as very strange, that just because an animal is so over populous that it should be afforded less respect than other animals.

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