Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Possum in the woolshed

This is a wee possum who lives in our woolshed. In Australia they're protected, in New Zealand they are a huge pest and people kill them. They do massive amounts of damage to the native plant life and in turn the birds and animals, so I understand this.
Click here to read about the Damage possums do

I, however, have never killed an animal and I'm not going to start now. There is building work going on in the woolshed and chances are he may move out of his own accord, but if he stays, he stays. ( I assume he's a he as we have seen him for years and there's never been a baby.)
 We give him shelter and leave him be and in return he doesn't eat our fruit or damage any of our trees. He never has. 
I know a lot of Kiwis will think this is irresponsible and we should trap and dispose of him. 
If I could wrap him up and send him to Oz I would! But as it is I think all the natives we've planted and looked after will in some way compensate for any damage he might have caused.
So he stays... if he wants to, but I think he will decide to leave as it's very noisy in there just now!



19 comments:

  1. Can't you like... chase him away???

    I don't really like possums. We never had them in The Netherlands but here in the US we do. I coudn't kill him eihter!

    Leontien

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  2. I honestly think he'll go by himself, it's absolute chaos where he's made his bed and the outside wall has been removed so he won't have much shelter.

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  3. Anonymous3:35 pm

    How could anything that cute cause any damage?

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  4. Good for you laura, i think they are beautiful too! We have a family that live above my compost pile xx

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  5. He looks very cute! I feel sorry for possums. I live in the mountains in Australia and tey are VERY common here. I say a woolshed is fine and if they get in someone's roof it is usually because it is poorly maintained. I know this because I have family members who have SIX living in their roof! Eeek!

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  6. Hello Laura. I often read your blog, but think this is the first time I've commented - sorry. But, just have to tell you, we have a possum too - he lives in the roll of the roller door and Hubby has to be careful when he puts the door up or down. He (the possum!) has been known to eat some of our fruit, but he's not too bad. Keeps our sons little dog occupied when he is here - 30cm high, trying to jump up about 3 metres to catch a possum he cant see ... LOL He's been there about 2 years now.

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  7. I love reading your blog but think this is the first time i've commented - sorry 'bout that. But, just have to tell you about our possum - he lives in the roll of the garage roller door, so Hubby has to be careful when he puts it up or down. He's been there about 2 years. He has been known to eat some of our fruit, ... and keeps the little dog occupied. Zeus is 30cm high and tries to jump up the 3metres to catch the possum .. LOL The possum is about twice his size! We live about 100km south of Perth, West Australia.

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  8. The Kiwi verson of saying 'bats in the belfry'!

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  9. I know people do get rid of them here in SA, although you have to ring someone, they come and move them and my friend had a box put in a tree in her yard so if it wanted to, it could relocate...we dont have any gum trees in our yard or neighbours, so we dont see them very often...I grew up with one and would hear it hiss...strange things they are...but very cute..

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  10. I think he is beautiful, he looks so lovely and I would let him stay too.

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  11. We have a similar creature here, the O'Possum. They are chicken killers and marauders. I think in NZ they are responsible for lots of bird deaths.

    My lady will only dispose of such critters if they come around trying to get into the house or the coop or endanger the animals within their fences. O'Possums here also can carry a lethal protozoal infection that can kill horses.

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  12. Well, I would feel quite privileged if something like a possum came to stay, but then I live in France! I suppose they only become a real problem in numbers.

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  13. I live in a small rual town in Oklahoma and we see them once in a great while in our neighborhood. One got trapped in our garage while we went on vacation (he had entered in a door before we left and we didn't know it), and when he came home he was dead by our back door. Saw a big mama once one evening crossing our front sidewalk by our front porch. We leave them alone and they go along on their merry way.

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  14. I've never had the pleasure of seeing one with my own two eyes. They sure look cute in photos though.

    I used to work on invasive species for the US Dept. of Agriculture. Invasive species are tricky business. Especially when cute! (In a way I always feel bad for the invasives because they are really only guilty of being too successful and almost always it was humans that brought them to a new place anyway! But, robust diversity of native flora and fauna is invaluable.)

    Tricky, tricky. (and very cute...I couldn't kill him either)

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  15. Yay mr. Possum - did you know they eat poisonous snakes because the venom doesnt have the same effect on them as other mammals?

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  16. I have just arrived here for the first time. And I LIKE you!!!! I need to read more and come back often.

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  17. I have just arrived here for the firs time. And I already LIKE you!!!!

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  18. You need to kill the little buggar cause he/she will have TB and potentially will be transferring it to your animals. Possums are riddled with TB and TBfree NZ have night gogglely photos of possums and cattle 'chatting' at night. Curious domestic animals with no predators let the possums get real close and the possums bite them on their noses (a bit Bad Jelly the Witch I know), transferring TB is a major threat to your animal's health and NZ biosecurity.

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I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x