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Opossums Overrun Brooklyn, Fail To Eliminate Rats

Posted by samzenpus on from the urban-opossum-blight dept.

__roo writes "In a bizarre case of life imitates the Simpsons, New York City officials introduced a population of opossums into Brooklyn parks and under the boardwalk at Coney Island, apparently convinced that the opossums would eat all of the rats in the borough and then conveniently die of starvation. Several years later, the opossums have not only failed to eliminate the rat epidemic from New York City, but they have thrived, turning into a sharp-toothed, foul-odored epidemic of their own."

10 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. Remember the old lady by egandalf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did they learn nothing from the story of the old lady who swallowed a fly?

    Poor thing. I hear she died.

    --
    Those who have telepathy have no need to RTFA.
  2. Wild Animals Should Stay In the Wild by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We had to deal with a bold, insane, possibly rabid raccoon on the front porch last week. Believe me, it's scary when the wild animals decide they're not afraid of you at all.

    1. Re:Wild Animals Should Stay In the Wild by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep, because discharging a firearm at night in an urban setting to kill rodents and small mamalls is an intelligent thing to do.

    2. Re:Wild Animals Should Stay In the Wild by StikyPad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I found a possum in my trashcan many years ago. Feeling brave and heroic (aka scared and freaked out), I loaded up my air rifle with a .177 pointed pellet, gave it a full 10 pumps, and shot the possum basically point blank in the upper body. It was difficult to tell where it hit exactly due to all the fur and thrashing, but suffice to say that it did not die -- much to our mutual chagrin. Neither did it perish after the increasingly distressing 5 attempts at a coup de grace using BBs from the reservoir. I ended up having to retrieve and load another pellet and shoot it in the head to finally put it out of its misery.

      After it was dead, I went to get a shovel only to came back and discover that it was not actually dead, as it had tipped over the trashcan and escaped. Turns out "playing possum" is a real thing after all.

      Personally, I would not recommend air rifles for shooting possums, or any other "varmints" for that matter. Even if you're a good shot, even if you *can't miss*, there's a significant chance that you will not kill it, and having a wounded animal running is not a good thing. For starters, there's the natural displeasure of having inflicted needless suffering (which may sound "unmanly," or inconsequential until you've actually experienced it), but also there's the practical reality that you've just created an increased risk to pets, children, etc., (which also feels pretty shitty).

      That said, I don't have a problem with people killing animals, be it for pest elimination or for sport, but inexperienced would-be shooters should be fully aware that shooting something doesn't necessarily equate to killing it, especially with an underpowered gun. If you're in an area where it's illegal to discharge a firearm (which is the case for the vast majority of residential areas), you should probably just stick to traps.

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  3. Common sense... by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe I have the benefit of experience, having lived in the south and all, but WHO WOULD BE SO F#$%ING STUPID AS TO USE POSSUMS FOR PEST CONTROL?

    The damn things are like the mammalian answer to cockroaches. If they didn't have typical mammalian susceptibility to radiation, odds on them among southerners would be 10:1, their favor against roaches to survive a nuclear holocaust by eating the remaining roaches and being the last species standing.

    1. Re:Common sense... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're not as bad as rats, but it blows my mind to think that someone somewhere thought of the possum as a predator. They will hunt, but only if there is no ready supply of garbage. New York is their promised land.

      They'd have been better off importing bobcats. Though, of course, importing predators into New York to kill their pests is doomed: the pests are so commonly poisoned, that they're very likely to kill anything that eats them. That's a common problem with the falcons who feed on pigeons.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  4. New York Post article ... by Spectre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know this is Idle, but still.

    Newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post.

    Tabloids: New York Post, Washington Times.

    If this is a real story, is there a real paper carrying it somewhere?

    Sort of, here's a United Press International feed: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/09/19/Immigrant-opossums-adapt-to-Brooklyn/UPI-90141284911712/

    --
    "Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
  5. WIKIPEDIA by immakiku · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet and reproductive strategy make them successful colonizers and survivors in diverse locations and conditions.

    If they had just read the first two paragraphs in wikipedia, they'd know possums don't just "die off" after there's no more rats.

  6. Re:possum is a food group here in alabama. by lexidation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They just show their teeth and hiss? What the fuck would you do if someone trapped you in a garbage can and started poking sticks at you? You expect the little fucker to greet you?

  7. No kidding by sean.peters · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The whole idea is almost mind-bogglingly dumb. Where did they get the idea that possums would eat rats? They mostly eat carrion and bugs.

    Maybe for their next trick they can introduce a herd of cows... you know, to eat the possums.