MARSUPIALIA--WALLABIES AND OPOSSUMS.
Numerous attempts have been made to introduce various kinds of
marsupials into New Zealand, and several kinds of kangaroos, wallabies,
and opossums have been liberated in this country. At the present time
there are either three or four species found wild in different parts.
COMMON SCRUB WALLABY; BLACK-TAILED WALLABY (_Macropus ualabatus_).
Some fifty years ago the late Mr. Studholme got some wallabies either
direct from Tasmania or from the Canterbury Acclimatization Society,
and these were set free in the neighbourhood of his home at Waimate,
in South Canterbury. They very quickly increased, till they numbered
thousands. They live in the bush, scrub, and fern about the gullies
and gorges. They come out in the evenings to feed in the open ground.
Their food consists chiefly of grass, but they are very fond of
certain trees, particularly _Panax arboreum_, which they scratch and
bark pretty badly. The skins of those taken in winter make very fine
rugs, as the fur is thick and heavy. The flesh is said to be very
palatable, and the tails make excellent soup. They are quite large
creatures--small kangaroos, in fact--and the old bucks weigh over 60 lb.
About the year 1870 Sir George Grey imported some wallabies from
Australia and set them free on Kawau Island. About the same time Mr.
John Reed, of Auckland, also imported some, which he liberated on
Motutapu Island, whence they have spread to Rangitoto. Those on Kawau
increased to such an extent as nearly to eat out the vegetation, and
when the property was sold the new owners allowed the wallabies to
be killed out wholesale. They have by now been mostly all destroyed.
Even in Sir George Grey’s time us many as two hundred would be killed
in a single battue. Some got across to the mainland--a swim of three
miles--but they cannot be very numerous. They belong to the same
species as those so common at Waimate.
[Illustration:
[_W. Beken, photo._
FIG. 1.--THE COMMON SCRUB WALLABY.]
COMMON OPOSSUM (_Trichosurus vulpecula_), AND SOOTY OPOSSUM
(_Trichosurus fuliginosa_).
People who live in or near the bush in many parts of New Zealand know
that among the trees are to be found numerous furry animals about the
size of a big terrier dog, which are popularly known as opossums. The
name is a misnomer, like so many popular names. The true opossums are
found only in America; they belong to a different family of marsupials,
and are carnivorous. Our animals are herbivorous, and ought to be
called phalangers; but the other name will always stick to them now.
These animals are not usually seen during the daytime, but they
come out at night, and, when other kinds of food are short, may
make an attack on the orchards and eat the apples and pears as they
are becoming ripe. But because they are chiefly nocturnal in their
habits young people seldom see them, and unobservant people may live
in a district containing thousands of opossums and never know that
they occur in the neighbourhood. These animals are not natives of
New Zealand. They were first brought to this country from Australia
about sixty years ago, and were liberated near Riverton. Later
importations have frequently been made, both private individuals and
acclimatization societies introducing them. Thus the Auckland Society
and Sir George Grey brought a considerable number from Australia
between 1869 and 1876, and Kawau at one time was overrun with them. The
Wellington Society liberated nineteen Tasmanian black opossums in the
ranges behind Paraparaumu in 1892; and the Otago Society got twelve
silver-grey opossums from Gippsland in 1895, and liberated them in the
Catlin’s district. They have increased greatly in most wooded parts of
the Dominion.
[Illustration:
[_W. Beken, photo._
FIG. 2.--THE COMMON OPOSSUM.]
The opossum is a marsupial--that is, its young are brought forth in a
very rudimentary condition, and are carried by the mother in a special
pouch, which is provided with teats. When newly born they are little
blind (?), naked creatures, not half as long as one’s little finger.
The mother takes the little one in her lips and places it in the pouch
with its mouth to a teat, and in this position it is carried for about
four months. For the next two months it rides on the mother’s back,
until it is able to look after itself. It leaves its mother when about
six months old, and is then nearly half-grown. The opossum has only one
young one once a year. (On the other hand, the true American opossum
produces as many as a dozen at a time.) When fully grown the opossum is
about 18 in. long. It has a thick, bushy tail, about 11 in. long, the
end of which is blackish in colour. From this thick tail these animals
are sometimes known in Australia as “brush-tailed opossums.” The legs
are short and strong, and each foot is furnished with five fingers or
toes. The bodies are covered with close, thick, woolly fur. In the
first-named species the upper part of the body is a grizzled-grey
colour, with the chin blackish, a rusty patch on the chest, and the
rest of the under-surface whitish or yellowish. In the sooty opossum
the fur is of a dark brownish-black colour. Otherwise the two species
are very like one another. The head is small and somewhat fox-like,
with rather short ears.
These animals live in trees, taking shelter in holes during the day,
and sometimes they make a kind of rough nest at the bottom of the hole.
The trees which they frequent are often marked by the tracks scored on
the trunk by the sharp claws of the animals as they climb. They ascend
the trees in a succession of jerks or short jumps, stretching out their
feet and claws as far as possible on each side, and rarely losing their
hold. In descending a tree they always come down head first.
In Australia opossums feed on the leaves of various species of
_Eucalyptus_ (or gum) trees, taking to other food only when these are
scarce owing to clearing of the bush. In New Zealand they feed on
whatever the bush supplies them with, chiefly leaves and shoots. Mr.
F. Hunt, of Round Hill, says of them, “The food the opossum lives on
is chiefly leaves of broadleaf, kamahi, broad-gum (_Panax_), and mapau
(_Pittosporum_), rata-blossoms, supplejack-berries, berries of fuchsia
and makomako, and practically all the seeds and blossoms that grow in
this part of the bush. The opossum is not a grass-eating animal. It
will eat white or red clover, sweetbrier shoots and seeds, but if an
opossum is caged and fed on grass it will die of starvation. Also, if
it were fed on turnips it would take as much to feed twelve opossums as
one sheep would eat. When I and my brother were catching opossums for
the Southland Acclimatization Society we fed them on carrots, boiled
wheat, bread, boiled tea-leaves with sugar, and anything sweet. The
damage the opossums would do running at large would be very little,
seeing that they never come on to open country. The animal is blamed
for barking apple-trees; but the opossum does not bark a tree. It
might scratch the bark with its teeth, but it does not strip it off.”
Colonel Boscawen, of Auckland, who is a most reliable authority, tells
me that as long as there is plenty of green stuff available opossums do
not interfere with fruit, but that the damage they are often charged
with is the work of rats--presumably black rats. On the other hand,
at Kawau, Motutapu, Hawera, and other places they are stated to be
destructive in orchards, eating the shoots of apple and plum trees in
the spring-time and the fruit in the autumn.
The number of opossums in this country now is enormous. In 1912 it was
estimated that over sixty thousand skins were taken in the Catlin’s
district alone. Some acclimatization societies try to protect these
animals, while fruitgrowers seek to destroy them. The law is rather
complex on the subject, and few laymen know whether or not it is legal
to destroy them. Meanwhile a large number are killed annually; but
their skins are often declared as rabbit-skins, though, as a matter of
fact, they are worth four or five times as much.