Weird Bark Damage, Help! :)

[richowen]

Hi, ive found some weird and drastic bark damage on a tree and was wondering if anyone had an idea what caused it, its most likely deer, we do have muntjack in the area but havent heard of any larger deer.

Along with the large gouges theres small puncture holes aswell, all a bit confusing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Rich.

[Farplace]

It certainly looks like deer damage. How high up the tree is it? Also, is just one tree affected, or several in the area?

[Gill Catton]

I think that's damage by humans of the 'bored-youfs' variety, the cuts look very regularly criss-cross plus its near an access gate There isn't that much disturbance around the base of the trunk (which I would expect to see with deer I think).

[richowen]

i doubt its "youths" we live in a pretty nice area and like 3miles away from town, theyd ave to be determined, it goes from like 2ft to 5ft up, weve cleared the area around the base and theres been fresh damage and chips or bark round the tree for the last two nights, so we'll see if we get any tracks tomorrow.

[Gill Catton]

Look for prints, deer slots in the ground below, they should be pretty obvious - especially if this deer is getting up to 5ft up the tree, if they're not there its not deer. When I was a bored yoof I'd regularly walk to the woods which was about 2 miles and would walk around within for hours for who knows how far! So its not impossible (not that I ever carved up trees!).

Incidentally, where in the country are you? That might help.

[richowen]

yeh ill ave a look tomorrow sometime, but i can imagine a lot of disturbance if it was a decent sized animal using that much force to make that kinda of damage, the tree is riiight here:wr15 8hn - Google Maps