More Information
Predation by Possums - An Opportunity Lost
Authors: Colin BassettPublication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2010, Issue N.Z.J.For. 55(4) 2011, pp 13, Jan 2011
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Abstract: Colin Bassett recounts how opportunities to interupt the ravages of possums on unique birdlife of New Zealand were sadly missed. The sight on television of a possum massacring kea chicks has jogged my memory and moved me to relate something that happened a long time ago. When I was a trainee in the Forest Service Head Office about 1950, I was given the task of searching old files to find a certain topic. What the subject was I have now no idea, but I recall it was fascinating to trawl through what I thought of as very ancient documents - although they were certainly not more than 30 years old. I probably wasted a lot of time reading extraneous stuff and I never did find the material I was looking for, but I recall a report that was written, perhaps in the late 1920s, by Arthur F. Clark, entomologist to the Forest Service (possibly stationed at the Cawthron Institute).