I came upon these dead gum trees in a swamp of the Pope Branch north of route 72. The rodents will eat the bark and then go on to another tree. These were all dead.
Beaver Girdling
- Thread starter bobpbx
- Start date
Interesting. Is this some sort of instinctive strategy they have evolved to learn? Kill the tree, wait a couple years for it to fall and then use it? Less risk and less overall work?
The only place I've seen anything that resembles that is out west, done by Bison eating the bark in winter and the damage was up higher due to the snow cover. You can see Beaver knaw marks on one standing tree, a couple have what appear to be rings marks around the lower trunk.