Dead possums and rat poison.

29-Jan-2008

Today, we looking for dead possums. Not to be confused with the North American opossum, possums were introduced to New Zealand from Australia because the colonists thought that there weren’t enough animals. Since then, scientists have realized that possums eat kiwi eggs (gasp! horror!) and so have been on a campaign to wipe them out. One idea is to introduce an STD into the population (seriously), but right now it’s up to volunteers like us setting traps. Yup.

We also set more traps for rats, and had to wear gloves because we were dealing with big blocks of rat poison. Fun stuff.

No but it was actually a fun day of getting lost in the woods (or bush as they say here). Nice 8 hour hike to check all the trap lines.

Only two weeks left – crazy. I miss you all but I am definitely not ready to leave.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under New Zealand Nature Program.