The history of possums in New Zealand

When the Australian Brushtail Possum (which is very different from the American Opossum) was first released into New Zealand in 1837 (becoming successfully established around 1858) with the express purpose of establishing a fur trade, our colonial New Zealand forefathers had no idea of the terrible impact that possums would have on the delicate natural balance of the native New Zealand ecosystem.

Without natural predators, this furry cat-sized marsupial thrived in the lush New Zealand native bush and quickly become a major ecological problem killing native trees and competing with native animals and birds for food.

Initially in the early day’s possum's where protected to allow their numbers to increase for the fur trade. There where 36 batches of possums imported and released into New Zealand mostly by the Acclimatisation Societies between 1858 until about 1921 when the New Zealand Government prohibited further releases.

There are records that show a release of 21 grey possums into an area of the South Island near Dunedin in 1894, when the regulations where temporarily lifted in 1912 over 10,000 possum skins where taken from that very same area in a very brief time period. So in only 18 years the population in that limited area had exploded demonstrating how well the possum had adapted to the New Zealand bush.

Two unidentified men with a substantial opposum catch. Image reference number: 1/2-110438-F. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Full protection was relaxed and the law changed so that possum trapping was heavily licensed and regulated to only 3 months of the year although poaching still happened all year round. By 1946 all regulations where lifted and possums where declared a noxious pest.

Opossum skins drying in the sun [ca September 1930] Reference No. PAColl-5469-022. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

 

Historical lessons from rabbits

Many anti-fur people will argue that by allowing a fur trade to exist, you are by default making sure that the possum will never be eradicated in New Zealand. The NZ government has come to accept that the possum may never be completely eliminated. The goal now is to control numbers to a manageable level that allows the native bush to regenerate and native bird and insect species to recover, especially in National Park sanctuary areas. The NZ government currently spends around 80 million dollars per annum on possum control using 1080 poison that is banned in some other first world countries.

Outlawing the possum industry will not assure the destruction of the possum in New Zealand. In fact once you take away the incentive to hunt possum the effort and money needed to reduce possum numbers will increase hugely.

History shows that rabbits were also introduced into New Zealand in the 1800’s, frozen rabbit meat and rabbit skins where a huge multi million pound (it was pounds not dollars in those days) export industry in New Zealand for many decades. But by the early 1900’s they realised that rabbits were out of control. The earlier introduction in 1870 of stoats and weasels to keep the rabbit population in check had failed, there where much easier and slower moving meals for the stoats and weasels in the form of New Zealand's native flightless birds.

In 1947 the Rabbit Destruction Council was established and among other things, levies were imposed on the sale of rabbit skins. In 1952 records show that 3,000,000 rabbit skins and 1,000,000 carcasses where exported so the industry continued to flourish and the rabbit population did too.

On the 11th October 1956 the rabbit industry was completely de-commercialised. New legislation was passed into law that made the sale of rabbit skins or rabbit carcasses for export, or even for sale within New Zealand illegal. This was intended to “ensure that neither skin or carcass had commercial value, which would in turn ensure that the eradication campaign would not suffer because of any commercial interest wishing to retain sizable rabbit populations”.

Grading rabbit skins. [ca 1930s]. - Reference number: PAColl-6348-02. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Unfortunately the rabbit continues to be a major problem today even after the illegal release of the Rabbit Calicivirus Disease in 1997 by desperate farmers. Stopping the rabbit meat and fur industry did not lead to the eradication of the rabbits. Even now in 2009 you can not buy New Zealand rabbit meat or skins, all rabbit meat available in the local supermarkets or restaurants and any rabbit furs like those used to trim the hoods of University capping gowns are imported!