Episode 10, Season 1

There are so many really cool species of animals that you can hunt around the world and we have certainly had the privilege of hunting some amazing animals in some amazing destinations. But do you want to know a guilty little secret? One of our favourite things to hunt is actually possums! 

I know it sounds stupid and there’s probably very few hunters who would be chomping at the bit to go on a possum hunt, but it is just so much fun. 

Queue all the antis having a pink fit at me admitting that I enjoy hunting something. I even used that dreaded ‘F’ word – fun. But that’s exactly what it is – fun with a cause. 

You see, none of us are out here killing things for no reason. There’s always a reason behind why we hunt. 

For many hunters, that is putting meat on the table – and while we love wild game as much as the next hunter, I think it’s a dangerous precedent to set to claim we only hunt for meat or that meat hunting is somehow more ethical than other forms of hunting. 

Take possum hunting for instance. We’re not just out there shooting fluffy animals because it’s fun and we enjoy it – that’s kind of the perk to the job. 

The reason we do it is to help reduce brushtail possums in Tasmania, which helps mitigate the damage they cause to the environment, to farms, and even in the suburbs and cities. 

Unlike their shy cousin, the ringtail possum, the brushtail is not afraid of anything or anyone. He will venture onto farmland for a feed, invite his friends over for a smorgasbord in your garden, or help himself to your garbage. He may even decide to take up residence in your roof or wall cavity, keeping you awake long into the night with his incessant scratching and twittering. 

The possum is also an opportunistic eater, feeding on anything they can get their paws. Predominantly herbivorous, they have a penchant for vegetable gardens and crops but are not adverse to raiding nests to eat eggs, or to eating small mammals and invertebrates.   

Possums are just as comfortable in the bush as they are on a farm, or in the suburbs or even in the middle of a city. 

Oh yes, and they carry diseases that can be passed to humans. 

One of the most common call outs for pest control is the removal or destruction of possums in a suburban or urban residence. 

The Tasmanian government recognises that recreational hunters and farmers are the best form of defence against possum invasions in our cities. Take them out in the country and you reduce their numbers in the cities. And it sure beats the alternative, which is laying 1080 poison baits for them to eat! 

So what is it that we like so much about a good old possum shoot? Well, imagine you are clay target shooting… at night… with a spotlight. Only your target is sitting way up in a tree, well out of sight. The only hint that its up there is a faint red gleam from its eyes as the spotlight hits them. You have a split second to fire the shotgun before the target takes off amongst the tree branches. 

On this particular hunt, Dad used the Burris handheld thermal for the first time, which was a bit of a game changer, as he could see them in the trees long before we could. 

You’ll also notice there was a bit of a twist to this hunt, as Jess took the fur from some of the possums that we shot and used them to tie flies for fly fishing. 

She then finished the episode trying to catch a brown trout on a possum fur fly. 

Did she succeed? Well, if you haven’t already watched the episode, we won’t spoil the fun.