Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game New Zealand possums

Anyone from New Zealand eat the possums? How do they taste and how do you cook them?

I ate one back when I was a boy, cubed the back legs up and fried it till it was dry.... the process would have destroyed any meat, so no surprises that it was a bit chewy.

The big thing with them is the carcases smell, and I could never get past that. Nowadays I guess I could cook one and make it taste pretty good, but I don't have any enthusiasm to do so.

Funnily enough, when I was trapping them as a schoolboy 40 years ago I averaged $11 per skin - we pluck the fur now and they are still worth about $10 per possum. Of course, $10 currently isn't worth what it was 40 years ago.

i shoot 3 - 10 possum a year i can`t hardly stand even picking up one of these nasty rat like creatures , never been hungry enough to even think about eating one of these ICK ! good luck with that thought, Pete53

I killed two when I was down there. They didn't stink anything like American possums.
Didn't eat them though.

Nasty buggers have TB.


They are sure soft though!

The New Zealand possums are a different species to the American possums. Apparently they were the main source of meat for the natives in Australia that lived between the mountains and the coast from what I read.

Common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) in New Zealand vs common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) and Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in America. Possum vs opossum. The Virginia opossum is what most Americans think of when talking about opossums.

They're nasty, but are all distinct animals, with possums being less nasty IMO. I have never eaten any species but skinning a common brushy tail was a much more pleasant experience than skinning a Virginia opossum. I have never seen nor dealt with a common opossum.


One of the two common brushtail possums I killed in New Zealand.


And the other...

those are nice looking possum compared to the ugly American possum that look more like a big white rat with a hairless pink tail ours are icky and diseased probably sometimes tuff to kill .

Getting ready to declare war on those nasty sonsabitches as my tomatoes are getting ready to ripen....

TimZ:


You suck! Temps were in the low 20's here (SE Oregon) this morning. Plants don't even go out until mid-June and frost might still get them then.