What Critter Did This?

I took the dogs for a walk in the woods at the cabin and saw this. It wasn’t a beaver. Could it be a bear looking for bugs?
I couldn’t make out any tracks around the base of the tree.

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Probably a porcupine after grubs.

Didn’t think of that Grouse. I might go set the Cam up over there.

Classic manbearpig. Half man, half bear, half pig

…..or a green sunfish

DaveB wrote:

Classic manbearpig. Half man, half bear, half pig

…..or a green sunfish

Definitely manbearpig, or it may have been aliens.

…

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That’s interesting. To me it looks more like a bear but it’s awfully close to the ground. Generally bears will mark trees up higher. It could possibly have been a bear going after ants or grubs though.
I doubt it was a porcupine as they are herbivores that mainly eat soft green bark, pine needles, berries, and seeds. That’s a dead log so there was nothing there for a porcupine imo.

I watched a fisher tear up a tree like that from my deer stand once. Figured he was looking for the squirrels that had been all over before he showed up.

too many coronas, got hungry and ate the first thing he ran into.

Woodpecker

SPIKE BUCK

JEREMY wrote:

SPIKE BUCK

I did see a spike buck hanging around in the yard this morning

Maybe it’s the woodchuck taunting you

A lazy lumberjack?

I bet manbearpig makes a great chili.

That woodchuck must have heard me load’n the Evil Roy cuz I ain’t seen hide nor hair of that varmint lately

Still think it was a Beaver. They are sneaky.

No water around plus the gnawing isn’t beaverish.

You didn’t see Hank and Ben in your woods with their hatchet did you? It looks eerily similar to their doings

I agree that it wasn’t a porcupine (they eat all the way around on green bark) or a bear (too low), or a beaver (no teeth marks).

I’m guessing a buck did it, even though rubbing on rotting dead trees is something that I can honestly say I don’t recall seeing before. But I do remember watching a hunting video years ago which showed a 6″x6″ fence post whittled down to a 3″x3″ from years and years of deer rubbing on it (it was somewhere out west with few trees)

It looks like a Corona peeing issue.

I vote pileated woodpecker, based on the damage above. When that dead wood gets punky they take it off in shreds like that, considering they’re basically living wood chisels, it makes sense.