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optimusprius · 4 years

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Give and Take

In October last year I was in a terrible place. Not physically, I was camped out at my parents house, no job, no rent, no real responsibilities to speak of, there was nowhere I ever had to be and nothing I really had to do. I had stumbled into the land of the unemployed and had remained there for 9 months, and man oh man it did a number on my head. I was miserable. I felt aimless and invisible, I was drifting through life feeling like I had achieved nothing and failed at everything. When you have all the time in the world you take it for granted, and become an expert at wasting it. I would wake up at 11 every morning (or later, if I was feeling extra lethargic) help my parents out with their small flower growing business for an hour or two, play video games, feed our small herd of cows and even smaller flock of chickens, then throw away the evening with more video games and movies until I dragged myself to bed, where I would lay, staring at the ceiling with all manner of toxic and destructive thoughts racing through my head. To be honest, I was probably doing only slightly more than what I’m doing while I’m currently in lockdown, yet I felt 100 times worse. I was trying to get out of there, but I wasn’t trying very hard. My job hunting was geographically limited to the current region I was staying in, and my preferences were so narrow that I was barely applying for any new careers. But when October rolled around, I took a massive risk and added one whole other region to my searches. I know, I know, it was a pretty wild thing to do on my part. If someone asked me what scares me more, roller coaster rides, or expanding my search on a job hunting website, I know what my answer would be. And 2 weeks after I took this crazy step in a new direction I had a brand new job! In Taupo! I was going to to leaving my parents sleepy little seaside farm and moving to a little tourist town smack bang in the middle of the North Island. And what was I going to be doing while I was down there? Killing possums. Yup. That was going to be my 9-5 for the foreseeable future. The same guy who was fascinated with animals and nature, who had rescued countless birds, cats, rodents and even a stingray (story for another time? I think so!) was going to be making a living dealing death out like it was dollar bills in a strip club. But the way I saw it, and still see it, is that it is a necessary evil. Our country was one of the last to see humans, with Maoris arriving around 500-700 years ago, and Europeans colonising the islands from the late 18th century. This meant the native flora and fauna had had no exposure at all to humans and all their nasty hitchhikers. By the time humans had established themselves in this little slice of paradise, they had already helped wipe out about 40 different species of animal, and had pushed many more close to extinction. Today, the animals that were introduced continue to put a lot of pressure on our remaining native ecosystems. Rats, mustelids, cats and possums are the biggest contributors to this, and possums are especially dangerous due to the fact that they are able to carry and spread tuberculosis to cattle and people. And if you have played Red Dead Redemption 2 recently, you would know how nasty that disease can be. Not to mention that if it was to run wild amongst our country's dairy farms it would be devastating for one of our top industries. So from an economical and environmental standpoint it makes sense to remove these animals, and sadly it’s not like we can ask them nicely and offer a discounted plane ticket back to Australia.

Just for clarification, we aren’t talking about American opossums here, but the Australian Brush Tailed Possum, a relatively harmless marsupial in its native environment, but a hyper aggressive menace in NZ’s forests. Removed from resource competition and predators, these guys have free reign to eat, breed, and kill with reckless abandon, and it just so happens that most of our forests foliage and birds tends to be especially tasty for them. At their highest point, their numbers reached between 50-70 million individuals, but now, due in large part to work similar to mine, their numbers have been reduced to 30 million, and continue to shrink. Now with all of that on the table, it’s time to ask the biggest question: how could I bring myself to kill any animal for a living, regardless of whether they are a pest or not? People have told me it seems cruel and unfair, these guys didn’t choose to live here, they are just trying to survive as best they can. They aren’t evil, they don’t steal candy from babies, or push old ladies down flights of stairs, so why should you go around killing them? Firstly, this is the part of the job I enjoy the least. Most of my coworkers are hunters, and so for them the thrill of the hunt is a large part of why they enjoy doing what they do, but I see it from a different perspective. I’m not doing it because I enjoy killing or hunting these animals, I do it because I love seeing our native animals and forests thrive in their absence. Whenever I sit down for lunch in a clearing after a hard mornings slog and see curious little robins, heavyset kereru and noisy tuis moving through the trees it gives me so much satisfaction. I’m protecting these guys, I’m making a safer environment for the animals that can’t protect themselves, even if the method to do so means there is blood on my hands. I’m more than aware of this, and I treat the animals whose lives I take with respect and dignity. Maybe doing this helps me sleep better at night, but it’s better than the alternative, treating them like numbers to be tallied, bragging about how many you have killed to your coworkers and friends. It’s also about accepting responsibility for the actions of those that came before you. European colonists may have had good intentions when they first introduced all of these animals, but as you probably know some of the best intentions can have the worst outcomes, and in this case, it is up to us to right their wrongs. And I’m not just talking about me, my coworkers, and anybody else in this line of work, but the general public too. Right now the majority of the population are aware and accepting of what needs to be done, but the vocal few (and boy, are they vocal) can still do plenty of unintentional damage with their own supposedly good intentions and naive ideals.

But to be totally honest, I don’t plan on doing this any longer than I have to. There are many other areas of conservation and environmental protection that I would love to throw myself into, but for now this is my best chance at picking up the necessary skills and experience needed in order to make my way forward in this line of work. While I don’t think I’m going to become an eco warrior anytime soon, I do still wish to one day open up an animal shelter, buy up a farm, convert it back into native bush and get lost in my own little slice of paradise, and I think what I’m doing now can help me get a better perspective of all things nature. The world is a wonderful, beautiful and complex place, and we need to do all we can to protect and nurture the animals that share this planet with us, even if that may mean getting our hands dirty and tidying up after those misguided individuals that came before us.

In this situation, in order to give life to some, we must take it from others. And that thought lays heavy on my conscience whenever I’m stomping through the bush, Monday to Friday, those precious birds flitting from tree to tree, unaware of what's being done to ensure their survival.

#nature #blog #conservation #possum #new zealand #writing #thoughts

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