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Story: Possums

Possum eating a chick

Although mainly plant eaters, possums will raid birds’ nests and eat eggs and chicks. In particular, they prey on forest birds such as kiwi, kererū and kōkako. Few chicks manage to fledge in forests where possums are prevalent.

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How to cite this page

Gerard Hutching, Possums – Impact on native animals, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/16899/possum-eating-a-chick (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Gerard Hutching, published 1 March 2009, updated 1 July 2015.

Comments

Cory
21 October 2023
Notice how the camera angle is not showing what's inside the nest. But it's positioned tonthebside to make it look like the possum is "eating".
Dean Smith-Holley
01 September 2020
I can only find this video to prove possums are eating all our birds, there must be hundreds of these video's ? One
Carole Long
12 June 2020
Until this technology became available we were assured that possums were totally vegetarian - and if you have heard a kokako song you would realise just how much we lose when chicks are killed.