Thread: TB in possums - not many if any

Actually, the photographer of that sequence used a small fenced reserve area, set up the vine and the thrush nest. Yes THRUSH chicks. The whole deal is a setup. This has been proved to DoC.

Actually it is a similar scam to the greeny claims of native fuschia (Konini) being completely denuded of foliage by possums. Lots of photo's of this terrible assault on native bush were gleefully published.
However, the truth is that Konini is one of the few native trees in NZ that is deciduous, shedding it's leaves annually as a normal part of it's existence. Possums do like eating it, but the claims made by Forest and Bird that the denuding was caused by possum are incorrect and deliberately misleading. (Unless of course, their emotive bullshit simply overrode their ignorance of the facts.)
Similarly, there were claims made about devastation of Southern Rata, and kamahi being wrecked by possums. Southern Rata flowers intermittently with sometimes several years between flowerings, and damage to those trees and the Kamahi in the Ruahine was caused by snowstorms and wind storms.