New Zealand Mammals

DSC_3044 Brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) eating native Powelliphanta land snail. It was not until the 1970s that scientists began to realise that possums rather than rats and pigs were responsible for large numbers of dead snails found in the South Island’s mountain forests and alpine grasslands. Possums bite through the shell near its opening and extract the snail within *

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DSC_3044 Brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) eating native Powelliphanta land snail. It was not until the 1970s that scientists began to realise that possums rather than rats and pigs were responsible for large numbers of dead snails found in the South Island’s mountain forests and alpine grasslands. Possums bite through the shell near its opening and extract the snail within *

DSC 3044 Brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula eating native Powelliphanta land snail dead snail South Island forest shell