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The chief reason poisoning (with 1080) has not
worked is because most conservation areas in New Zealand are "paper
parks". Thus, with enough money to control 5% of the parks, possum
control by poisoning is not enough. Local areas that are controlled do
bounce back, and the incidental losses from poisoning are quickly
compensated for in the absence of possums.
The second point is we used to have a viable fur industry based on
possums right up to the 80s. My brother's father-in-law got the deposit on
his farm by trapping possums. Scientists were trying to work out how to
breed possums in captivity for the fur-trade. Then with the anti-fur
movement in Europe, overseas demand and prices collapsed. Or as one trapper
commented to me: "the guts dropped right out of the market". The
sudden release of trapping pressure led to a large surge in possum numbers.
New Zealand plants are also very palatable to possums, as in the absence
of aboreal herbivores, many New Zealand plants lack the chemical defenses
that about in Australian trees.  |
