Thread: TB in possums - not many if any

You're exactly right, possums do need to be controlled, because they damage our native bush, which is what I said in my first post. But not because they "eat birds" and "spread TB". That's DOC and AHB's excuses for needing to throw 1080 about. To control possums a variety of control methods need to be used, it's like killing any pest, one method alone rarely works.

Originally Posted by JoshC

You're exactly right, possums do need to be controlled, because they damage our native bush, which is what I said in my first post. But not because they "eat birds" and "spread TB". That's DOC and AHB's excuses for needing to throw 1080 about. To control possums a variety of control methods need to be used, it's like killing any pest, one method alone rarely works.

totally agree, the primary issue is fauna destruction but when you consider the harm on birds and the TB issue that just increases the importance of controlling them. they probably do more harm to birds by eating the fauna than eating them directly but that is probably very hard to measure accurately either way but it does happen.

Originally Posted by smidey

totally agree, the primary issue is fauna destruction but when you consider the harm on birds and the TB issue that just increases the importance of controlling them. they probably do more harm to birds by eating the fauna than eating them directly but that is probably very hard to measure accurately either way but it does happen.

Presumably you mean the flora, which in nz is adapted to browsing animals like the Moa.
Obviously out of control populations of things like possums/deer/pigs/cham/tahr will do damage but in this day and age with the value of fur/skins and the value of WARO and ease of accesibility with helicopters and jet boats and tracks better gear capable of shooting much longer ranges etc etc etc we will never again see mobs of hundreds of deer like in the 50s and 60s and totally eaten out bush understorys on public land.