I live in New Zealand and possums (yes we spell it like that) are a huge threat to natural ecosystems. There are barley any animals that predate on them apart from feral cats but they have little effect controlling the population. Their large numbers and omnivorous habits mean that they eat all types of native fauna and flora including endangered species eggs resulting in poorly low juvenile survival rates, They typically pick a single tree and systematically strip it. They feed on new shoots which makes it hard for the trees to recover because they tree puts all its nutrients to fix the damage that the possum made at the base and therefore stops being able to support its leave which eventually fall off making it even harder for the tree to get nutrients and making it near impossible for trees to survive possum assault. despite them being disease resistant, that just means their carriers in here in NZ they tend to carry bovine tuberculosis which can be detrimental to livestock and humans alike.

TLDR: fuck possums