https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-...-carcass-count
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So is it proven possums prey on birds? Not just one picture I mean proven as a species?
good on the the local NZDA for putting $ and time to try & stop this insanity. Deferment is step in right direction.
"Possums feeding on birds" .... bullshit ! and deer kill "by-kill" - I'd call bullshit on that one too. OSPRI knew exactly what was going to happen. arseholes !
Good work.
Marlborough NZDA had a "give a little" page that raised several $K so the public have funded the research as well.
But good on them. Positive action like this is constructive and should be supported.
Yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gibo
They raid nests for eggs and chicks.
DOC, OSPRI etc simply use the term by-kill as a scape goat for poisoning deer and anything else they want gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by chainsaw
Yes they are full of bullshit but then they have to to be able to do what they do .
I'm sure there is a percentage that do but certainly not to the effect that there are no birds left.Possums and birds have been living together for some time lol.1080 will be making the coons look rather slow nowadays when it comes to killing birds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moutere
Simple really, you f*** with nature then it will turn right round and f*** with you.
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 objectivesQuote:
Originally Posted by Moutere
@Moa Hunter I was searching for this info the other day. Can you provide a link to the Drew Peters research ? hopefully it was published :thumbsup:.
https://scholar.google.co.nz/scholar...=1&oi=scholartQuote:
Originally Posted by Moa Hunter
Thanks Moa Hunter.Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
Doc are not big on listening to anyone even their own scientists.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/...ith-the-public
If the old DOC possum numbers were 70 million year after year doesn't that mean their efforts were only keeping up with the annual birth rate. And how can the monitoring figures be approx. 3% residual. But I guess they only need to keep bluffing Joe Public who so many of seem to take them as gospel.
So far chainsaw I can't give you a link to Drews work sorry. He worked out of FRI in Rangiora.Quote:
Originally Posted by chainsaw
If birds and eggs were a major part of possum diet there would be sfa birds left in OZ. Possum been there for millenia. Possum got sfa Tb over their either. Think on it.
No one is suggesting birds and eggs make up the majority of their diet.
That’s almost as absurd as claiming they’re not opportunistically omniverous at all.
Agreed. The fact is that birds fledgelings and eggs comprise a quite rare and very minor part of possum diet, if at all in most individuals, although the twig and tweeters tried hard along with DoC to promote photoshopped images deliberately rigged in order to sway public opinion towards a distortion of the truth. DoC even had very large posters and sign made with these images a few years ago. The effort being put toward open and transparent government via the State Service Commission will, I trust bring about correction to these practices that have been perpetrated onto a largely gullible general public and media by publicly funded spin doctors.
Quite right Woody. However the public now believe that possums are the main villain, a view that is fully entrenched. This is also so of the media. Tell people something for long enough and it becomes their truth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Woody
There is a lot of money in fact close to $100 million collected from TB levies on slaughtered cattle and deer plus ratepayer contributions collected by Regional councils every year and that is a big pile of cash for someone to control and spend. The position of Doc regarding possums as a bird predator came later as we know following the 70 million possums are eating their way through x tonnes of forest each night, and that position was only taken to support TB free so that consent could be given to drop poison on crown Doc land.
With the spin and indoctrination that the public has absorbed to date I believe it is doubtful that public opinion can be changed. With the entrenched industry sucking on that annual 100 mil teat it is hard to change the Government position as well. I know, I have separately met with a past minister of Ag and two ministers of conservation. Regional Council executives etc etc.