Wildlife Who Done It??

[Recurve]

Two weekends ago, while walking along the Clinton River here in Oakland Co., I noticed a tree that had been completely stripped of bark down to the wood and well up into the tree. Closer examination revealed shavings around the base and whatever had stripped it, had gone out onto small branches, 1 to 2 inches in diameter and stripped those too. There were a couple of other trees nearby that were also stripped of bark the same way. One of the larger trees was stripped of bark up to at least 30 feet high. All of these trees were within 20 yards of the river. I'm not sure the species but think it was Poplar or young Cottonwood. Very white wood.

This area has beaver and I have seen trees cut down by beaver with the bark eaten after it was cut down. I do not think beavers can climb and even if they could they wouldn't have been able to go that far out onto the light branches. So I have ruled out beavers. I have also seen Sumac stands girdled by mice under the snow but those are only a few inches up the trunk and usually only seen after a hard winter. Besides it would have taken an army of mice to do this damage, so I would rule out mice.

The only thing that comes to mind for me might be a porcupine but I didn't think they were this far south and I have never seen one here. Can anyone solve this wildlife 'who done it?';)

[YPSIFLY]

Maybe it was the same people who steal aluminum siding from houses and sell it by the pound. They just ran out of houses to steal from.;)

Seriously though, I can't think of any animal that can strip bark up to 30 feet. Short of a giraffe escaping from the Detroit Zoo, I'd say it was an act of man.

[Recurve]

Definately not an act of man. On the ground, except for some small shavings the bark was gone, (eaten). Not every bit was stripped off the tree, mostly gone but with a random pattern, as you might expect from a rodent like animal. You can tell by the pattern this was done with teeth, I think, and not with a tool. I'm still thinking porcupine but like I said I have never seen one this far south.

[Liver and Onions]

Sounds like too much damage for squirrels, but maybe if several worked on the same tree they could eat that much. If I think about it, I call the naturalist at Seven Ponds Nature Center tomorrow and read him your statement and see if he has an idea.
I have never heard of any porkys south of Clare
L & O

[Recurve]

No blight and yes there appears to be gnaw marks. Except for some small shavings there wasn't any bark around the base of the trees as there would be if shed due to a blight or insect damage. This happened over a one month period or so since I had last walked in this area. Still a mystery to me. I may check it again this weekend and post a couple of pictures.

[YPSIFLY]

If you can get out, I'd really like to see some pics. This sounds really weird.

[Liver and Onions]

I called the naturalist, she was very interested in trying to figure this out. She couldn't come up with anything based on the info. She would like to see the pictures if you post some.
L & O

[StumpJumper]

I've never seen anything like that. Sounds weird!

[chef]

That sounds like a porcupine problem to me. We have them everywhere up here however they mostly stick to eating maple tree bark. You can't go into the woods up here this time of year and not see at least one tree that is like that. It is amassing the amount of damage that one porcupine can inflict on the trees. You guys really don't have any porcupines down there? It amazes me that we would have this many up here and you would have none down there.

[Airoh]

Sounds like porkies to me. But Iv'e never seen any that far south.
Up North they have been girdling my beech trees the last couple years. They are picking on the biggest mature ones.
:mad:

What is the diameter of the trees being stripped?

[Liver and Onions]

If this is a porky, then someone must've live-trapped it and brought it south with them.
L & O

[sargent]

In the National forest behind my property there is a tree I call the porcupine tree because there are porkys living there year after year and there is a pile of porky dung about 3ft high at the base of the tree.
The porky dung is brown shaped like a football and is the size of a large kidney bean. Now this porky family leaves this tree (I believe it’s an old hollow cottonwood) and makes a trail to the maples in the area to feed.
I have never seen them strip bark from the trunk of the tree only higher up towards the top on the 2-4” branches.
However ,In my woods there is a pileated woodpecker that is making some spectacular sculptures of some of the aspen and soft maple trees. After they are done with the tree it looks gnawed. ????????

Any droppings at the base of your tree recurve?

[Youper]

I've got the same damage at my place, but restricted to pole size sugar maple and red oak. Of course they are leaving alone all the other species, mainly balsam fir, variours kinds of poplar, spruce and pine. That's why I never pass up a chance to shoot a porqupine.

[Recurve]

I went back out this weekend and took photos. I will post some here after I get them developed and digitized. Hopefully, they will turn out okay. Lots of new damage, this time to include pole-sized silver maple. Plenty of shavings around the base of newly damaged trees. A couple of the trees had starter sized damage and a couple were almost completely stripped 30-40 feet up and out onto the braches. Most of the damage was higher up although some were started lower. Very weird! No recognizable tracks or droppings. It was slushy and warm so any small animal tracks would degrade quickly. I have never seen anything like this in our local woods.

[multibeard]

I am willing to bet that it is squirrel dammage. We have lots of places aroung here with the tops completely stripped. I always blamed it on porkies but when I checked a couple spots with snow on the ground there were no porkie tracks or droppings. Only squirrel sign.

[turkey tom]

I vote PORKEY or SASQUACH.:D

[Lunker]

Its pesky barking spiders ! hehe

[Recurve]

It's been awhile, (Photopoint) since I posted a photo. Can anyone walk me through the current process? I'll put up some pics of the tree damage and we'll see if anyone can solve this puzzle.

[Recurve]

Uploaded a couple of photos to the Gallery but couldn't get them to link here. I used IMG button and then pasted the URL for the photos. The HTML looked okay on the preview but it came up with broken links and no image. Hmmm. If anyone cares to look they are posted in the "other" section under Outdoors. I'll put some more up when I can figure this out. :confused:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/854tree5-med.jpg

Like this one? You have to make sure you have the url of the actual picture not the url of the page that it is on.

[Recurve]

Thanks guys, I'll try again this evening. The first photo, was a good-sized buck rub. No mystery there. The second one is the puzzle. As can be seen, bark is completely stripped from the trunk and shavings can be seen on the ground. This is in southeast MI. I'm leaning towards a porkie but they aren't supposed to live here. "Who done it?"

[Liver and Onions]

Recurve,
Are you saying that the 1st picture is a buck rub ?
L & O

[Recurve]

L&O, Yes the first picture is a buck rub. Not sure the tree type but it has an aromatic bark and the bark is tough, stringy and doesn't strip easily. You can see where the brow tines tore it up pretty good. Also, it is obviously the right height from the ground. Lots of buck sign, rubs and scrapes in the area near this picture. No relation to the other pics. Do you have any idea on the other pic?

[Liver and Onions]

The reason that I asked was that it looked to high off the ground to be a buck rub. That must've been a very tall deer. Maybe someone who knowns what porky damage looks like can comment on the 2nd picture. It seems unlikely that someone would live trap a porky and release him your area, but I guess that is possible.
L & O

[multibeard]

Recurve, After seeing your picture I would lean toward it being a porkie. Squirrels usually strip the upper branches and not the main trunk. I am not sure of the range of the porkie but there seem to be alot of misplace critters these days. Last year we had a bunch of ravens screw up a nice tom comming in. I live in west Mich. and ravens are supposed to be a UP bird. They screwed up more than one turkey hunt for me when I used to hunt in Delta county. Saw one about a mile from my house the other day cleaning up a road kill. You never know what you will find where any more.

[Recurve]

Originally posted by Liver and Onions
The reason that I asked was that it looked to high off the ground to be a buck rub. That must've been a very tall deer. L & O

It may be hard to scale from the picture but it is only 3-3 1/2 ft off the ground. Look at the two rips where you can see wood, that is from the brow tines. This area was really tore up.

[Recurve]

Here's some more pics of the damage caused by the mystery critter. A couple of guys mentioned squirrels...I don't think so. It would take an army to do this amount of bark stripping. Seems like alot for even one porkie. Anyway, it's still a mystery.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/854tree9-med.jpg


http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/854tree10-med.jpg

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/854tree11-med.jpg

Thanks to Northern_Outdoorsman for the details on posting pics.

[StumpJumper]

Thats weird, I've never seen anything like it! Must be porkies!

[northern_outdoorsman]

Man I might be just spending too much time up north but I swear I have see a few dead porcupines on the road down here...and I know there are some at least as far south as Rocommon...

[outsider]

It's gotta be porkies . Ther are plenty of them in Clare and Isabella countys, and I'll bet even farther south

[Recurve]

I'm reviving this thread. While driving to work I noticed the same type of damage to a patch of small woods just west of Mound along M-59 on the north side of the road before Dequindre exit. . This is several miles away from the other wooded area that was damaged a couple of winters ago, about this same time of year. Any guess what species could be causing this?


http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/539/854tree16-med.jpg

[Neal]

Recurve, can you set up a deer cam there?

Neal

[gratioteer]

porkies... and they roam further south than the boarder of Michigan.

[Recurve]

Originally posted by Neal
Recurve, can you set up a deer cam there?

Neal

I don't have a cam but I suppose one could be set up there. Not sure it would be secure though. You can easily see the damage from the road but if you didn't know what you're looking at you'd think it was trees dying and losing their bark.

I first noticed this 3-4 weeks ago but just getting around to posting it.

[secondgear]

Alien porky's? ?LOL