Abstract
The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) has been reported to eat vegetation, fruit, invertebrates, and occasionally fungi, eggs and meat. The relative preference between food types found in the wild, however, has not been investigated systematically in a controlled laboratory study. This research investigated captive possums’ food choice using two different methods of preference assessment. The first experiment involved a single stimulus assessment of possums’ (n = 20) consumption of individually presented food items. More than 75% of possums consumed berries, locusts and mushrooms but fewer than 50% of possums consumed fivefinger, raw chicken and eggs. The second experiment that used a paired stimulus assessment to establish relative preference for those foods revealed that no single food was preferred by all possums. Overall locusts were the most preferred food, followed in order of preference by berries, egg, mushrooms, chicken and foliage. The single stimulus preference assessment confirmed the palatability of foods. The paired stimulus assessment provided a rank order of food preferences.//
Highlights
The second experiment that used a paired stimulus assessment to establish relative preference for those foods revealed that no single food was preferred by all possums
The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is predominantly a folivore that has been reported to consume over 150 species of native and exotic tree and plant species in New Zealand (DeGabriel, Foley, & Wallis, 2002; Henderson, O’Connor, & Morgan, 1999; Nugent, Sweetapple, Coleman, & Suisted, 2000), but will often consume ‘higher quality’ foods such as invertebrates, fruit, and seeds when available, in preference to foliage (Nugent et al, 2000)
The results from Experiment 1 showed that all food types were consumed by some possums across the three days
Summary
The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is predominantly a folivore that has been reported to consume over 150 species of native and exotic tree and plant species in New Zealand (DeGabriel, Foley, & Wallis, 2002; Henderson, O’Connor, & Morgan, 1999; Nugent, Sweetapple, Coleman, & Suisted, 2000), but will often consume ‘higher quality’ foods such as invertebrates, fruit, and seeds when available, in preference to foliage (Nugent et al, 2000) They have become a major pest species in New Zealand after being introduced from Australia because of their detrimental impact on native flora and fauna (e.g., Cowan, 1990), and their negative economic effect on agriculture (e.g., Warburton, Cowan, & Shepherd, 2009). The present study was conducted to systematically assess, in controlled experiments, which food types typically available in the wild, possums will consume and their relative preference for these foods
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