Trapping possum

[Coote]

Oh, OK Rick, no worries. It wasn't my website, it was just one where I'd already posted the information on skinning possums. I will see if I can find a simple way of copying the information to this site. Meanwhile, if anybody interested wants to do a Google search they should be able to find the article. The article is on a New Zealand site called Ooooby which focuses on growing your own food ("Out of Our Own Back Yards"). Use these keywords and you should get my article in the first couple of hits: ooooby how skin butcher possum.

[Rick]

My apologies. If it isn't your site and you don't have an interest in it then you're welcome to post the link. When you said you had posted the information I assumed it was your site.

[Sparky93]

When possums start raid'n the feed barrel around here they end up with a quick case of lead poisening. Possums carry a disease that can kill horses, I forget what the disease is called. I've caught possums in my coon traps use'n spam for bait (not that it matters to a pussum what the bait is). I would have to be starving before I'd eat a possum, one of my rules for food is if when it was alive if it takes a dump then turns around and eats it, it will not make a good meal. I've seen documentaries on people that live in the appalation mountains that find racoons and opossum as a delicacy though.

[wtrfwlr]

Do you eat chicken?

[Coote]

Thanks Rick. Here is the link to an article about skinning and butchering a possum:
http://ooooby.ning.com/group/meatism...-and-butcher-a

The possums in NZ and Australia are quite a bit different to the native American possums I believe. I think there may be several different varieties in Australia, but the one that was introduced to New Zealand is the brushtailed opossum. It is a marsupial.... the females have a pouch that they raise their young in.

Here's an adult silver-grey variant.
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Here's a brown one showing his displeasure at my approach. It is held in a snare made from plastic packaging tape:
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And here is a juvenile possum trying to look fierce. This one got away.
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Here is a very young possum that was still in its mother's pouch. It is amazing how big a baby manages to fit into what seems to be a small pouch:
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Possums are considered to be a major pest species down here. I guess they do eat a fair bit of native and horticultural vegetation. However I like having them around and quite a few people make money from their fur. We'd have nothing much to hunt in this country if it wasn't for our introduced 'pest' species (which include deer, pigs and goats).

Best wishes from New Zealand... Stephen Coote

[Sparky93]

That thing looks like an overgrown squirrel crossed with a gremlin! Opossums are the only marsupial native to north america and thier newborn babies are as small as a jelly bean in their pouch, or at least so I've heard. Never actually seen a baby possum. Their a lot cuter than our possums.

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[Coote]

The newborn Aussie possums are tiny too. I guess I've seen them not much bigger than a jelly bean.

[wholsomback]

Peanut butter all over your trigger,opposum are gready and they just can't stop licking the stuff up ,it gives you a better chance of him wanting the trigger so therefore he sets the trap.We use it all the time here in Texas and catch lots of them but if your after fox pancakes,waffles and hotdogs are the best,don't laugh it works they can't resist the sweet stuff.

[Wise Old Owl]

For starters - has anyone suggested a REAL trap, instead of hitting the animal with a pallet?

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[Pocomoonskyeyes3]

Have you tried a different type of trigger? A Figure 4, Paiute, or "Treadle trap" would be more effective IMO. The trigger you have on that trap just looks "Stiff" to me. If the openings in your box are not the problem, and it is heavy enough that they can't lift it, then the problem would have to lie with the trigger mechanism itself.