Who's been pulling this stump apart

[Srgnt Billko]

Who's been pulling this stump apart ? Too much activity for woodpeckers. What other animals (?) could be doing it ?

[Srgnt Billko]

[Suzie-Q]

Termites?

If they've been working on it for awhile, it might finally be time for it to fall apart.

Termites were working on a tree stump (about 5 feet high) in my yard. It seemed very solid. One day I went out and pushed it over with almost no effort!

[dpb]

I'd vote for the woodpeckers -- looks like what they did to an old oak stump in our yard in VA. They were the pileated variety, though, not the little redheaded "Woody Woodpecker" guys. They could make the splinters fly beyond my wildest dreams until I actually watched them in action.

[Srgnt Billko]

Well we have a pileated or two that we see occassionally higher up in other trees but I didn't think they could do this much work.

[Srgnt Billko]

That was my guess also. I suppose if I take a picture late in the day and then again early the next morning that might tell us something.

[dpb]

Don't underestimate them! :) They took that old oak stump apart where there had been long-term infestation similar to what looks like yours about like taking a hatchet to it. Pieces as much as half-inch in diameter and inches long scattered about like a lit M-80 had been dropped down an old squirrel nest inside it.

Not to say something else couldn't be/isn't the culprit, but if it were raccoons or skunks or similar I'd expect the claw marks, etc., to be quite apparent as well as tracks as muddy as it appears around...

[mm]

Birds use to leave tracks also, but after Crime Scene Investigators learned how to make plaster casts, the birds took to flying in and leaving the same way. They're very sneaky.

[Srgnt Billko]

I was going to set up a motion detector camera today but just didn't get to it.

[dpb]

Oh, you need one of those round tuits... :)

[Srgnt Billko]

YUP !!

[Chris Lewis]

I'd expect a pileated woodpecker would leave distinct and quite regular holes, even in very rotten wood. The holes we have are usually 3-4" high, 2-3" wide, and neatly tapered into the tree.

We have _lots_ of samples of that on our property.

There are some holes in the stump that're slightly suggestive of that, but can't tell for sure.

The wood appears very soft, so it's not clear that the claw marks would really be noticable, and the ground doesn't look like it'd show tracks from something like a skunk very well.

I'm thinking most likely skunk. Got armadillos in your area? But even a groundhog might do that.

[Chris Lewis]

According to dpb :

The holes I'm referring to are only about 2-3" deep. They can't fit in that.

Tho, it may depend on what the woodpecker is actually going after. The holes I'm describing are in apparently healthy cedar trees. In softer wood (eg: standing dead and rotting aspen) going after ant nests, their holes may be much more irregular and larger.

[dpb]

Or, they may just tear the whole thing apart leaving basically nothing but shreds in the end... :)