They made a mess of the maples & spruce

I thought the rabbit damage my garden had last winter was bad until I saw your pics, Joanne. Holy moly! Was all that bark eaten by just one porcupine, or was there a bunch of them? Will the trees recover?

Not sure how many, but I think it is a bunch of them. There are a large number of trees that have been stripped of the bark. Some branches are definitely dead. No one lives at our farm so the animals just do as they please. I did see one large porcupine really early this morning. I might have to ask the neighbour to get rid of them. They don't seem to touch the polpular trees, only the spruce & maples. All have damage in the yard

I had no idea porcupines ate bark. That's a whole lot of damage! I'm sure some of those trees will not recover.

How big are these ring-barkers? Can they climb too?? It does look like terminal death for the trees.

http://www.nhptv.org/naturewor... They seem to tell everything but it's size. Sort of leaving off a big piece of the puzzle there doncha think?

Okay, wikipedia says they are
Mass: 5.4 – 16 kg (Adult)
Length: 64 – 91 cm (Adult)
Tail length: 20 – 25 cm (Adult)

In metric especially for you Glen.

Thank you Ann.

BTW, since this thread is titled Porcupine damage, I thought I would include this photo. The people who bred my border terrier have a son who lives in Texas & he also has a border terrier. One day the mowing guy left the interior gate open & a porcupine got into the part of the yard that is the dogs yard. The dog & the porcupine tangled & this was the result.



The son was out of town when it happened & the wife called the ER vet. The vet said to pull them out & she (the dog) will be fine. Well, the wife did & said it hurt her more than the dog. Border terriers are tough dogs. Still, it's hard to look at that pic & imagine having that happen. I can sympathize with the poor wife who had to pull all those quills out!

Oh my goodness!

Poor dog! That looks painful. I seen one of the porcupines really early in the morning. I looked huge, over 20 lbs

Sure glad we don't have those around here.