The bush is a supermarket filled with food. You just need to know where to look. I learned this technique from my dog.
Yep, that critter is an Australian brush tailed possum. Quite different to the animal you have in your neck of the woods. They were introduced to New Zealand back in the 1800's and have done a lot of damage over here.
They defoliate favorite trees over here like northen Rata, and they eventually die. They also have a penchant for birds eggs, reptiles,insect and have almost obliterated a lot of our native species. The government is trying to eradicate them - reckon it can be done by 2050 - but I doubt it. It is not hard to trap 100 + per day or get many hundreds with Cyanide,
growing up we ate lots of opossum but what most people don't know is they are like buzzards they are scavengers and will eat all manner of dead things but not as a general rule but will not pass up a free meal. they are greasy to cook but taste good when you are hungry about like a ground hog aka woodchuck
You certainly have a lot more animals to choose from in the states. The only native mammal in New Zealand is a bat. All the mammals we have now, deer, pigs, rabbits etc were introduced.
Thsn Thanks Gray ghost. We used to have an iconic cartoon series in NZ called foxtrot flats. The main character was Nick named the gray ghost.
No, but they did introduce ferrets, stoats and weasels to try and control the plague of rabbits (rabbits were introduced to feed the miners). Stoats decided NZ birds were quite tasty and chased them as well as the rabbits. Bit like the old women that swallowed a fly.