what predator made this scrape?

[steeliedrew]

Me and addicted2hunting walked pretty far in behind a closed gate today looking for deer. One one of the roads we stumbled upon this:



At first I thought it may have been a bear but when we looked closer at it, the claw marks were deep and made with surgical precision, like razor blades had been drug down the tree trunk. On the opposite side of the tree there were claw marks where I'm thinking the animal used one claw to hold on while it ravaged the tree with the other. I'm thinking it was a cougar. What do you guys say?

[steeliedrew]

I'm thinking it wasn't a bear because there were fresh shavings all over the ground next to the tree. Aren't bears hibernating right now?

[6x6in6]

Porcupine

[KFhunter]

put a camera on it

from the pics I'd say you found a cougar scratching post, does it smell like cat piss?
rained on it a lot though

[carlyoungs]

Bigfoots baby

[ArrowH]

looks like porcipine to me

[KFhunter]

Why you saying porky?

I don't see any chips, don't see where they fed on the phloam layer of the tree.  Just looks like it's been clawed, which doesn't match a porky's teeth setup. 
They more like a beaver.

[ArrowH]

Why you saying porky?

I don't see any chips, don't see where they fed on the phloam layer of the tree.  Just looks like it's been clawed, which doesn't match a porky's teeth setup. 
They more like a beaver.

looks to me like it is down to the cambium layer, and looks to be only about a foot off the ground, cougar would be a lot higher up as just like other cats they stretch out to claw, and usally just stratch straight down,raking the tree not tearing things up. But only seeing a photo and not being there can't tell for sure

[Kola16]

My little experience says it is not a porker 

[KFhunter]

looking closer at the pic

now I'm thinking a buck rub
It appears the scratches were made in an upward motion, as the bark curls are at the top of the scratches not the bottom.

Cat would claw downward
Porkys chew down or sideways

[KenPCPilot]

What ever term you want to use bear scrape scratch. "Chew" is what I use.  Usually the bear will chew and claw closer to the ground and usually all the way around the trunk.  You wil see teeth naw marks as they eat the "prenumbra" I am not sure to the spelling.  Saw several old ones last year.  I have never seen similar tree marks.  I am most familar with bucks or bulls scraping up smaller sapling and trees.  usually the ground around the tree is torn up from the feet as they dig in to scrap.  my best guess is bear. 

[KFhunter]

bear like firs around 4-6 inches maybe 8inches in thickness, and you'd see long peels usually

[bobcat]

I would say buck rub but I could be wrong.

[runamuk]

deer

[steeliedrew]

the scrape was about 3 ft off the ground even though it doesn't look like it in the pics. They are definit claw marks from very sharp claws. As I said above it looked as though a razor blade was drug along the tree in a downward motion.