Nuisance Over Nuance: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Common Brushtail Possum ( Trichosurus vulpecula ) in Aotearoa New Zealand's Online Media
Abstract
ABSTRACT In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Australian brushtail possum ( Trichosurus vulpecula ) is widely reviled as an icon of environmental destruction. This paper employs critical discourse analysis to examine how the possum is constructed as a pest within online media. Depicted as non‐native, overconsuming, and proliferative, the possum emerges as a villain in antithesis to the natural world. This paper argues that such discourse reflects not only the possum's threat to biosecurity but also deeper tensions within capitalist and settler‐colonial ways of relating to nature.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Geographies of human-animal interactions
Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
Publication details
- Journal / source
- New Zealand Geographer
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 1
- Publication date
- 1 March 2026
- Language
- EN