Thread: Poison drop delayed

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

No they don't !! The posters previously used to promote this idea were actually staged, some even using pets and animals mounted by a taxidermist - the rat + possum + nest poster. Remember the poster that had a thrush nest with blackbird eggs and an attendant possum?? Possum research undertaken by FRI scientist Drew Peters in the 1970's /80's is the most thorough and rigorous undertaken in this country and that research did not show eggs and chicks as a dietary component of possums. Possums can of course be trained to eat a new food source in captivity just as almost any other animal except Panda bears can. For a long time we were also fed the BS that peak possum population had reached 70 million this (back of an envelope Doc staff ) figure had no proof but was used in funding applications and the actual figure from Drew Peters was 25 to 30 million, extrapolated from counts plus skin harvest figures that were compared to the stable/declining population. Forget what landcare research say their 'research' is tailored to fit with the political objectives

Thanks Moa Hunter.
One is still learning and to be honest I can not recall anything about this Drew Peters in the 70-80's and his work. I was hunting for the NZFS in the early to mid 70's,,never knew he existed.