Top right .Near the little 'envelope.

Post edited 5:21 am – 29th May 10 by Me.

Ann-marie, Strange as it may seem your entire post is interlinked. Early settlers did indeed bring most of the current problem creatures to New Zealand, but there is one exception: rats, they found their own way ashore. The early settlers also brought gorse and broom, believing these plants would remind them of the old country, you have no idea of the problems these plants have now caused.

Most of out endangered bird species are on the list because of the animals introduced by early settlers. We have a high number of ground dwelling, flightless birds, such as the well known Kiwi. Because these birds can't fly, the adults and the chicks are easy prey for opossum, rats, cats and dogs. Fortunately successive governments have recognised the gossamer thread that keeps these creatures from extinction, and a huge amount of money is put into conservation. Just five kilometres from where I am sitting is the Urewera National Park, this huge track of land is put aside for conservation purposes (try a Google) and I might add it's one of about a dozen parks put by for the people. The Urewera park is about the size of Sussex, it's alive with wildlife, sadly many of which have been declared noxious and hunters are encouraged to find and kill.

Top of the list is without doubt opossum, this is an unbelievable problem and the numbers are mind boggling. The estimated count of these creatures (NZ wide) is put at 80 million. They are poisoned, trapped and shot, however the number remains constant, I could really rave about this animal but I have written enough. The other animals in the park are deer (three kinds) all noxious, and are constantly hunted. Wild pigs, called Captain Cooker pigs, so named because the man himself is reputed to have brought the first lot. The latest menace, and are these are just gaining a toe hold, are peafowl. Yes those lovely peacocks you admire in stately homes. In pairs they are very attractive, in the wild the numbers rocket because in most of the park, the native bush is impenetrable.

A few days ago you posted a picture of a family of Canada geese. I might say they are possibly the most attractive water fowl. Here they are noxious and this year the shooting season was extended (it was doubled) to cull the huge numbers. This will be difficult for you to understand but with only 5 million people living here, and most of those are in the towns and cities, just how do you keep wildlife in the back country plus the lakes at reasonably manageable numbers?

This last part might help you understand and get a grip on the numbers. Every year the local primary school hold a fund raising weekend to help buy educational extras for the children. The method of getting that money is to hold a 36 hour rabbit and opossum hunt. Prizes are donated by environmental groups and there is usually between 20 and 25 teams or four hunters taking part, the entrance fee is $25-00 per person, this all goes to the school.  Last year, in 36 hours, the winning team on rabbits shot 270 between them, the total tally being just over 900 rabbits in 36 hours. I can't recall the number of opossums the winning team shot, however the total tally was a little over 2500. The opossum are skinned (actually they are plucked ) and the fur sold to raise more money, and the rabbits are also used primarily as food at a pig farm … pigs love them.

As a footnote, these seeming shockingly high numbers wouldn't have began to scratch the surface, the numbers are simply mind boggling.

All of these problems can be laid firmly at the feet of those early settlers.

We have a black possum in the Ureweras, and the current price being paid it $115.00 a kilo for the fur. It takes about 15 possums for a kilo of fur if they are wearing their winter coat. The summer coat will yield a kilo for about 22 animals … on average.

And with all the hunting and trapping, they still can't cut the numbers.

Myxomatosis was very probably one of the most disgusting, vile diseases a scientist could ever make. Yes it killed rabbits in large numbers, but how it killed them could be best described as obscene. Pockets of bunnies built an immunity to it, and they changed their habitat from living entirely underground, to settling up home in dense bush.

The latest tool (it's been around for a while now) is the carnici virus (sp), a flea that gets into the rabbit's ear, it's highly contagious and generally kills the rabbit within 24 hours.

Pockets of bunnies have grown immune to it … and so it goes on.

Now here is the odd part, rabbits are a highly prized commercial proposition, their value as food is well recognised by good restaurants and the unsaleable meat is prized as pet food. However, as is usual, the government will not allow wild rabbits to be killed or processed anywhere other that a recognised freezing works (abattoir). Nobody can go to such an expense and on top of that how do you catch a wild rabbit?

Therefore, we have a valuable export commodity going to waste, whilst animal pasture is still being undermined by 'Bugs Bunny' and his rather large family.