On Apr 8, 8:30 am, "salmobytes" wrote:
possums are a curse in New Zealand, where they eat (defenseless) bird
eggs.
...and where providing possum and stoat skins is a public service.

found this one with Google. Didn't read the whole thread.
Maybe someone else mentioned it too:

http://www.chichesterinc.com/Opossum-Australian.htm

# 1 daughter did a semester of work-study in New Zealand. (Darn All
I ever managed to get in school was work, work and study within 40
miles of school)
Anyway part of the program involved working a Kiwi preserve. The
Kiwis are endangered because of the possums, foxes, norway rats,
ferral cats and other introduced species. The people running the
preserves were constatnly fighting these introduced vermin. They had
to trap and poison the beast; All of them live in very dense brush/
forest and you can't just go out and shoot them.
Her job was to go out all night and wait buy a Kiwi trail and count
them as they went by. How you count them in the dark and rain I never
understood totally. Maby it was ESP or something.