New Zealand Tires of Playing Possum : Wildlife: The country has 70 million of the creatures, 20 for each resident. The government vows to reduce the population.

Being small, furry and cute should have its advantages. Not so for the New Zealand possum.

Some animals, like the Australian koala, have made a career out of their cuddly image. But their fellow marsupial, the New Zealand possum, is the object of nothing but contempt in its homeland.

New Zealand’s Statistics Department says that at last count, the country had 70 million possums--20 for each New Zealander and about 70 million too many for most New Zealanders.

Why New Zealanders dislike the possum so vehemently is not clear, but the fact that possums can spread bovine tuberculosis in a country where farming is a major industry does not help their image.

In addition, the omnivorous possums pose a threat to native bush and fauna as they collectively chew through 21,000 tons of vegetation every 24 hours.

But by far the most damning evidence against the possum was the capturing on video earlier this year of one of its number eating the eggs of the kiwi, the bird as synonymous with New Zealand as the bald eagle is with the United States.

The only difference is that the eagle can look after itself. The kiwi, a small, flightless, nocturnal bird unique to New Zealand, rates somewhat lower on the machismo scale.

Whatever the reason, the possum has become probably the most unpopular animal in New Zealand--and the focus of increasingly bizarre attempts to control its numbers.

Previously, New Zealanders had been content to knock the odd possum off with their cars--the cat-sized carcasses of possums litter country roads--or take a potshot at them occasionally with a rifle.

This has now become too simple. New Zealanders often claim to possess a certain homespun ingenuity, to be rough-hewn Mr. Fixits. No problem is so great that it cannot be fixed with a piece of fencing wire.

Unfortunately for possums, this ingenuity has now been directed their way.

Not only are organized possum hunts regularly held throughout the country, with cash prizes for the most pelts or tails brought in, but a whole range of possum products has sprung up.

A possum-skin jacket entered in a Design a Possum Product contest won the creator $500 in consulting time with a local marketing company to discuss the commercial promotion of the product.

Second prize in the same competition went to a possum-fur teddy bear, complete with movable limbs.

The big winner at another competition last year was the possum golf-club cover, which won out despite tough challenges from possum hats, hot water bottle covers, slippers and handbags.

The winners of that contest picked up a cool $1,100 in cash and marketing advice.

Various attempts to sell possum as a food have not really taken off, although connoisseurs claim that the meat has a taste somewhere between beef and chicken.

Now the government has got in on the act, announcing the provision of $3.5 million to bring the possum population down.

A government press release on the subject promises menacingly, “We are going to do the job properly.”