The Brushtail Possum was introduced to New Zealand from Australia to provide and industry based on skins. Well with no natural peditors, the possum thived and has become a pest by eating [decimating] indigenous flora and eating eggs of indigenous birds, and very young birds.
Although they are a very clean animal, they carry TB, which is a threat to New Zealand's agricultural industry.
To date 1080 poison has been the most preferred method of control by the authorities but the use of the poison is controversial and has recieved widespread protest.
I probably do have an opinion and I did have certification to use the poison. The most important property of 1080 is that it leaches very readily in water becoming ineffective.
The green colour is supposed to deter birds from consuming the bait but clearly some birds do eat it. If dogs ingest 1080, it is a terrible death for them. But 1080 does do a good job on possums and they usually have just one offspring per annum (with one on the way), birds are able to produce several.
Just between us though, much of the opposition to 1080 is with vested interest - many are hunters. Hunting deer and perhaps pigs, thar, chamois is their passtime and for the poison is effective on those animals too.
But I'm not debating 1080, I liked to hunt possums for their pelts.
I used to hunt possums as a winter/spring activity and to make a few dollars. Never a fortune, but I did by our first colour TV set from the proceeds of possum hunting.
Possum hunting is hard work, but it is also interesting if you love the bush and take an interest in your surroundings - and, every dead possum is of some help to the indigenous forest.
You cover some difficult terrain and your hands hurt after skinning 20 or 30 possums - and that is an easy day.
Where possums were plentiful, I used cyanide poison with a lure of flour laces with aniseed and other concoctions from peanut oil to oil of roses. In some instances the possum was killed by smelling the poison - dying almost instantly. There may be five of so possums at one bait! On one line, maybe you lay 100 baits.
I remember a time when Matheson laid baits around a paddock of turnips - there was a truckload of possums for them to skin. There is no need to skin them straight away - sometimes I would set the line one weekend and pick up the possums the next.
Sooner or later the possums become bait shy and I had to resort to trapping using the dreaded 'Gin' trap. So then need there was to set the trap (I hope everyone knows that possums are nocturnal) and collect them the next morning - as early as possible. Gin traps usually hold the possum by a leg - sometimes the possum struggles and the bone is broken. The animal goes into shock and is usually asleep when I arrive at the trap.
Now the animal has to be killed. Some may shoot it, some bash their skulls in with a blunt instrument. My method was to stun the animal with a hit on the head using a heavy stick, then severing the jugular vein. I carried string with me and tied the animal to a tree branch - by a hind leg. The skin cannot be taken while the animal is warm because it will rip, the skinning was the next day. Seldom, the jugular was not severed and I would find the possum still alive sitting on top of the branch!
Skinning the animal could be tough work - especially the big red bucks! Late in the day, if I found one of those - I would throw it away to save my hands! Basically I would start by opening the skin across the front legs and 'punching down inside to remove the skin from the chest muscles.
Then across the inside of the rear legs and usually punching out the area just above the tail to make room for my boot to fit through. Then I could stand there and pull the skin from the hind legs, right off like a sock and keep pulling to tear it off around the face. You need big, strong hands to take the tail skin off - two fingers each side of the base of the tail and pull upwards. I had my own way using a piece of chainsaw starter cord and making a loop to fit around the base of the tail and pull much easier.
40,50 or more skins in a pack - I used a sugar bag - are heavy after a while.
There were always losses - other guys would discover your line, or a pig would follow it eating as many possums as it took to fill him.
I had my possum hut where I stretched and dried the skins. I stretched them on to specially cut 4 x1 timber [metrics 100 x 25] with a staple in the top to hook into a nail set in the rafters.
First you need to turn the tail inside out, so cut the very tip off and poke a length of no.8 wire through [deftly] and this does the job. Then turn the rest of the skin inside out and slip it over the board. on the thin edge at the top you tack the top of the skull and at the bottom, the underneath part of the tail. Turn the board around and tack the legs to join. Just leave the tail hanging. On the flat of the board tack the face parts.
Now you need to take off any meat or fat without cutting the pelt. This is why you do the punching when skinning - the better the job, the less meat/fat there is to remove. Mice and maggots can do some cleaning but they don't quite know when to stop.
Once the pelt is dry - - say 3 weeks, remove the tacks and with a sharp knife
cut from top to bottom the leg joints and belly - this opens the skin. Then the tail - there is a dark line where the possums prehensile tail grips things, there is not hair there. You cut straight down there and you have a pelt.
I used to brush them and clean them up, but doing that did not increase the price by even one cent!
The price depends on colour, but there are black patches on the pelt. This is damaged fur regenerating. White skin = high price, black skin = zilch. So the amount of black denotes the grade.
The possums at Herbert Forest had generally lower grade skins which I put down to the gorse - but maybe that is wrong, maybe it was warmer in the forest.
I used to travel down to Green Island to meet with Fred Barclay to sell my possums. Selling the skins is a ritual and the grading is watched carefully. And without exception you were happy with the price until you met with contemporaries who always inflated the price they were given.
Old Fred was pretty straight as were the other buyers.
Many dodged the taxman by stating their name as the Prime Minister. or some important figure. Some saved a lot of money that way, but I had the feeling of Mr Taxman looking over my shoulder, so did not succumb to the temptation.
I guess if I tallied up, I would not have made money, but it was a pastime, and a way of spending those dark, winter nights profitably. It gave me cash that I would not otherwise have had.
And of course there were those adventures. My first born decided he would like to try possum hunting, so I took him to my trapline. I held the first possum by the tail while he had the hefty stick to crack it on the head. I received the crack on my head! So the novelty wore off quickly for him. Oh, don't worry about my head - hasn't cracked in many a year.
Although they are a very clean animal, they carry TB, which is a threat to New Zealand's agricultural industry.
To date 1080 poison has been the most preferred method of control by the authorities but the use of the poison is controversial and has recieved widespread protest.
I probably do have an opinion and I did have certification to use the poison. The most important property of 1080 is that it leaches very readily in water becoming ineffective.
The green colour is supposed to deter birds from consuming the bait but clearly some birds do eat it. If dogs ingest 1080, it is a terrible death for them. But 1080 does do a good job on possums and they usually have just one offspring per annum (with one on the way), birds are able to produce several.
Just between us though, much of the opposition to 1080 is with vested interest - many are hunters. Hunting deer and perhaps pigs, thar, chamois is their passtime and for the poison is effective on those animals too.
But I'm not debating 1080, I liked to hunt possums for their pelts.
I used to hunt possums as a winter/spring activity and to make a few dollars. Never a fortune, but I did by our first colour TV set from the proceeds of possum hunting.
Possum hunting is hard work, but it is also interesting if you love the bush and take an interest in your surroundings - and, every dead possum is of some help to the indigenous forest.
You cover some difficult terrain and your hands hurt after skinning 20 or 30 possums - and that is an easy day.
Where possums were plentiful, I used cyanide poison with a lure of flour laces with aniseed and other concoctions from peanut oil to oil of roses. In some instances the possum was killed by smelling the poison - dying almost instantly. There may be five of so possums at one bait! On one line, maybe you lay 100 baits.
I remember a time when Matheson laid baits around a paddock of turnips - there was a truckload of possums for them to skin. There is no need to skin them straight away - sometimes I would set the line one weekend and pick up the possums the next.
Sooner or later the possums become bait shy and I had to resort to trapping using the dreaded 'Gin' trap. So then need there was to set the trap (I hope everyone knows that possums are nocturnal) and collect them the next morning - as early as possible. Gin traps usually hold the possum by a leg - sometimes the possum struggles and the bone is broken. The animal goes into shock and is usually asleep when I arrive at the trap.
Now the animal has to be killed. Some may shoot it, some bash their skulls in with a blunt instrument. My method was to stun the animal with a hit on the head using a heavy stick, then severing the jugular vein. I carried string with me and tied the animal to a tree branch - by a hind leg. The skin cannot be taken while the animal is warm because it will rip, the skinning was the next day. Seldom, the jugular was not severed and I would find the possum still alive sitting on top of the branch!
Skinning the animal could be tough work - especially the big red bucks! Late in the day, if I found one of those - I would throw it away to save my hands! Basically I would start by opening the skin across the front legs and 'punching down inside to remove the skin from the chest muscles.
Then across the inside of the rear legs and usually punching out the area just above the tail to make room for my boot to fit through. Then I could stand there and pull the skin from the hind legs, right off like a sock and keep pulling to tear it off around the face. You need big, strong hands to take the tail skin off - two fingers each side of the base of the tail and pull upwards. I had my own way using a piece of chainsaw starter cord and making a loop to fit around the base of the tail and pull much easier.
40,50 or more skins in a pack - I used a sugar bag - are heavy after a while.
There were always losses - other guys would discover your line, or a pig would follow it eating as many possums as it took to fill him.
I had my possum hut where I stretched and dried the skins. I stretched them on to specially cut 4 x1 timber [metrics 100 x 25] with a staple in the top to hook into a nail set in the rafters.
First you need to turn the tail inside out, so cut the very tip off and poke a length of no.8 wire through [deftly] and this does the job. Then turn the rest of the skin inside out and slip it over the board. on the thin edge at the top you tack the top of the skull and at the bottom, the underneath part of the tail. Turn the board around and tack the legs to join. Just leave the tail hanging. On the flat of the board tack the face parts.
Now you need to take off any meat or fat without cutting the pelt. This is why you do the punching when skinning - the better the job, the less meat/fat there is to remove. Mice and maggots can do some cleaning but they don't quite know when to stop.
Once the pelt is dry - - say 3 weeks, remove the tacks and with a sharp knife
cut from top to bottom the leg joints and belly - this opens the skin. Then the tail - there is a dark line where the possums prehensile tail grips things, there is not hair there. You cut straight down there and you have a pelt.I used to brush them and clean them up, but doing that did not increase the price by even one cent!
The price depends on colour, but there are black patches on the pelt. This is damaged fur regenerating. White skin = high price, black skin = zilch. So the amount of black denotes the grade.
The possums at Herbert Forest had generally lower grade skins which I put down to the gorse - but maybe that is wrong, maybe it was warmer in the forest.
I used to travel down to Green Island to meet with Fred Barclay to sell my possums. Selling the skins is a ritual and the grading is watched carefully. And without exception you were happy with the price until you met with contemporaries who always inflated the price they were given.
Old Fred was pretty straight as were the other buyers.
Many dodged the taxman by stating their name as the Prime Minister. or some important figure. Some saved a lot of money that way, but I had the feeling of Mr Taxman looking over my shoulder, so did not succumb to the temptation.
I guess if I tallied up, I would not have made money, but it was a pastime, and a way of spending those dark, winter nights profitably. It gave me cash that I would not otherwise have had.
And of course there were those adventures. My first born decided he would like to try possum hunting, so I took him to my trapline. I held the first possum by the tail while he had the hefty stick to crack it on the head. I received the crack on my head! So the novelty wore off quickly for him. Oh, don't worry about my head - hasn't cracked in many a year.
