What Did This?

[sparked1]

Classic chupacabra my friend.

 

[rockyfatcat]

Looks like someone girdled the tree and then some.

Girdling results in the death of the area above the girdle over time.

There is obviously a series of cuts, But why start so high, and why go so high?

I don't know. Set up a trail cam? See what comes visiting?

 

[napaul]

I'm going to do just that and hope that whatever/whoever did it decides to come back.

 

[jimmythegem]

Animals that damage a tree...deer, porcupines, rabbit, squirrel, bear, beaver and voles to mention a few but that looks like two legged animal. But why?? Course in this day and time nothing surprises me anymore. Maybe a bored deer hunter in a tree stand?? You know, started out to be carving his initials............

 

[Old Ranger]

looks like hatchet marks. strange though

 

[napaul]

Animals that damage a tree...deer, porcupines, rabbit, squirrel, bear, beaver and voles to mention a few but that looks like two legged animal. But why?? Course in this day and time nothing surprises me anymore. Maybe a bored deer hunter in a tree stand?? You know, started out to be carving his initials............

This is just off a path I travel regularly. This is very recent (24 hours or less when I took pics) and deer season has been over here for 2 weeks. No way anyone would break the law or trespass, right? I also looked closely at the pics and the more I look the more it seems that it doesn't seem like axe or machete marks. Where the straight "cut" lines are, the lines aren't uniform. Some of them that are right beside each other are at different heights, if that makes sense. Look closely at the pics and you'll see what I mean. Unless they were using a zig zag shape blade...maybe it WAS aliens...

 

[Porter Rockwell]

Do some more investigating: check the ground around the tree closely, any foot prints, tracks, loose bark? Check the bark on the ground closely, any cut marks, claw marks or insects. Pull back or cut off some more bark and see if there are an insects, or fungus growing? From the pics the tree looks fairly gouged up, so it clearly seems something did this. Unless the pics are deceiving, is there any chance the bark simply fell off from disease, fungus, or due to being a dead or dying tree?

If none of that helps - call the X-files

 

[Lockout]

I had a tree that bark was falling off
Similar to this and after we cut it down we saw tree has been dead long time due to lighting

Bark was falling off like a bad disease got ahold of it

 

[napaul]

I took a closer look this morning now that the light dusting of snow is gone and found more bark than I first thought around the base of the tree. The more I look at the bark and the tree itself, the more I'm convinced a person didn't do it. The "cut marks" on the tree aren't straight enough to have been made by any type of blade. The pieces of bark on the ground also do not have straight edges. Though I did notice the inside of the pieces of separated bark have some tunnels where insects have burrowed through. There are also parts of the tree missing bark where the wood is more smooth than jagged and other places where the wood looks as if it was splintered. This may really be reaching but is it possible that the insects that were burrowed under the bark created some type of saliva or secretion that froze in the cold temperatures and splintered the bark off as it expanded? I'm still not sure that explains why it looks like a horse-sized beaver had a go at it. I took pics. I'll try to upload them.

 

[napaul]