There were once horses on the Auckland Islands. Possums were deliberately introduced too but didn’t last long. Hardly surprising. It’s a harsh environment.

The AT220 self-resetting trap was one of five ‘products to projects initiatives’ that recently received funding from Predator Free 2050 Ltd.

Pre-feeding, finding a way to counteract learned bait aversion and a dual bait application could be the key to possum and rat eradication with 1080.

When software developer, Andy Saunders, returned from the UK a few years ago, he bought a property in Whiriwhiri in North West Waikato.

Scientists investigate a new toxin combination that is less slow, doesn’t accumulate in the environment and is still effective.

Duncan and Tina Mackintosh farm White Rock Mains in North Canterbury. 92 hectares of regenerating beech forest is protected by a QEII covenant.

For community groups carrying out predator control it can be a real struggle to get rat numbers down to a level that allows small native birds to breed.

Ross and Eleanore Webber farm a 195-hectare property at South Head, overlooking the Kaipara Harbour and established two QEII covenant blocks 15 years ago.

When possums live in an urban landscape, their fondness for fruit, flowers and foliage quickly makes then unpopular with gardeners.

A few years back, John Collins of Omaui got sick of shooting possums every night. He decided more needed to be done.

Landcare Research have published some research recently looking at the damage possums do the forest canopy and the time it takes for trees to recover.

It’s dead. Very dead, judging by the stench and the smooshed appearance of the remains – all fur, bones and black-brown gloopy stuff. A possum, maybe?

Possums – those cute Aussie furballs are decimating New Zealand forests – so why don’t we just develop our fur industry and make money from the problem?

It’s called the Trojan Female Technique and it’s involves a mutation in females that makes all their male offspring infertile.

Rest assured, New Zealand’s scientific community are beavering away to find new and better ways to combat possums.