It’s been a mystery to Robbin and I for several years as to who or what has been stripping or eating the bark of certain California Buckeyes below Sulphur Peak.
Only noticeable on a few trees this time of year, we have speculated all manner of rare varmints or animals. Last week while feeding and checking our stock water in the Greasy Creek watershed, Terri and I spotted the culprit in the act, an ordinary ground squirrel. I have often wondered how ground squirrels, half a mile or more from any water, get a drink or enough moisture to survive our summers. Perhaps I’m on the right track, or it may be something else altogether that drives a ground squirrel to ultimately kill the limbs of select Buckeye trees.
drycrikjournal 
As someone who lived in Ohio for many years and married an OSU fanatic, anything hurting Buckeyes/buckeyes is anathema to me!! 🙂
janet
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Just curious, is the finish as smooth as it appears in the pictures? Can you see the indentations of teeth?
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You can see little gnaw marks when you enlarge the photos.
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A sad outcome of being a part of the food chain but I found beauty in the results. The tree is still standing, growing, resilient (yet). And the teeth marks are like a signature from the creature who made them
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Indeed interesting when you consider the bark, leaves, and fruits contain neurotoxins. “Apparently, only ground squirrels find them palatable.”
I would have guessed porcupine.
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We thought an errant porcupine at first, but none in the area. And who knows, maybe the ground squirrels die. We first observed the bark damage three years ago, now again this year–maybe one of those good ideas that didn’t turn out well.
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