Pampered possum a pal
A baby possum plucked from her dead mother’s pouch and raised by a cinematographer has been resettled into a new home, part of a thriving underground trade in the furry pests.
Beth Davidow, an American living part of the year in Northland, flew to Christchurch solely to deliver two-month-old Luna the possum to her new owner.
Luna entered Davidow’s life in December, extracted as an ‘‘icey little joey’’ from her dead mother’s pouch.
Mum’s neck had been snapped in a trap – one of many that Davidow and her partner set on their bush-clad Cable Bay property.
‘‘I don’t know what compelled me to take her out,’’ Davidow said. ‘‘We’ve seen other babies before and they’ve all been dispatched to little possum heaven.’’
Davidow described her two months with Luna as ‘‘eyeopening, joyful, and chaos’’.
‘‘We’re fully aware of the huge problem they are for New Zealand’s ecosystem, but now we also see them as very intelligent and affectionate animals,’’ she said.
Luna climbed walls, plucked bread from the toaster, slept each night cuddled into Davidow’s chin and insisted on riding human heads.
‘‘They’re not destructive on purpose,’’ she insisted. ‘‘But no matter their upbringing, possums are wild animals with programmed behaviour they will follow.’’
A wildlife cinematographer, Davidow is better suited than most for a ‘‘labour-intensive goofball of a snuggle-hound poss’’. She’s babysat black bear cubs and raised wolverines.
She and her partner split their time between Northland and Arizona; a lifestyle not suited to pets.
‘‘Knowing it’s illegal to release a possum once you’ve raised it and also knowing that if we did release her she’d either be trapped, shot, poisoned, or run over – I reached out to the possum community,’’ Davidow said.
‘‘Possum owners tend to be underground because Kiwis are conditioned to see possums as enemy number one, but we found family in Christchurch desperate for one.’’
Department of Conservation spokesman Herb Christophers said that fabulous or not, harbouring possums required a permit. ‘‘But we’re not the possum police and we won’t be pouncing out from behind power poles to arrest people walking their possums,’’ he added.
A tearful Davidow kissed her possum on the lips at Auckland airport, before sending her off to the plane’s hold.