Monday, June 29, 2009

There are more possums in New Zealand than people

There are more possums in New Zealand than people - 70 million of them, which is a disturbing ratio of 20 to 1. The Australian brush-tailed possum was introduced to New Zealand in 1873 for fur trading (someone call PETA).



Unfortunately for the Kiwis, the possums found abundant food and had no natural predators, so they quickly multiplied, and now run a muck of the countryside, spreading disease and eating everything (one little fur ball can eat up to a half a pound of vegetation a day) including endangered Kiwi eggs.

I came face to face with a possum this evening while walking my beast. Here in NJ we don't have cute little big eared possums, we have these evil burnt rat looking creatures...



There are some things on this planet that should clearly refrain from procreation.


For more information on possums, click here.

A special thanks to Katie Foley for editing my posts for grammar.

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