Pelt asking price is fur from lavish

Opossum hunting and trapping season ended Feb. 27, which raises the question: “Who wants to hunt or trap opossums?”

According to the 20152016 Furbearing Animal Report Blake Sasse compiled for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the possum limit was two per day, and the 697 pelts bought by fur dealers that season brought their sellers the princely sum of $83.64, or 12 cents a pelt.

In comparison, 622 bobcat pelts sold in the same period, fetching, on average, $28.96 apiece — $18,013.12 all told. And the bobcat limit also was two per day. Bobcats are hard to find; opossums are everywhere.

“Really these days there isn’t much of a market specifically for possums,” Sasse says. “Basically the ones that get sold are ones that were accidentally caught while trappers were trying to catch something a little bit more valuable.”

Opossum pelts don’t hold up as well as some other pelts used to trim coats, hats and whatnot.

“There probably are a few people still out there that actually hunt possums for food,” Sasse says. “It’s not at all common anymore.”

— Celia Storey