Possum trappers

Educational value

• This asset shows the skins of the Australian brush-tailed possum, which was introduced to New Zealand in 1837 to establish a local trade in animal fur - importation continued until 1920 and by 2004 there were approximately 70 million possums in New Zealand eating their way through seven million tonnes of vegetation per year.
• It depicts a common scene of the time, when the fur trade was important - changes in fashion, in part influenced by shifting attitudes to the treatment of animals, have now caused a decline in the industry.
• It illustrates the appearance of possum trappers and the sort of clothing they wore, especially when posing for the camera.

Year level

F; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12

Topics Possums Introduced species Fur