Long-term changes and seasonal patterns in possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) leaf diet, Orongorongo Valley, Wellington, New Zealand
Possum leaf diet from 1976 to 1989 in the Orongorongo Valley was compared with the diet recorded from four previous years, using faecal analysis. There were large differences in the proportions of species eaten in different seasons and between different years. There was little overall change in the proportion of the main diet tree species, Metrosideros robusta and Weinmannia racemosa, and seasonal increases or declines in one were usually balanced by opposite changes in the other.