Is this a porcupine peel?

[billythekidrock]

Porky

Bear

You, Sir, are being very unhelpful

How so?

[billythekidrock]

 
Bears do not use their claws to scrape the cambium, they use their teeth. They open their mouth and run their teeth up and down the tree to scrape the cambium into their mouth.

Now imagine the “scraping stroke” (for lack of a better term) of a bear and how far up and down the tree it can scrape compared to a porcupine, if a porky were to scrape (they chew).

A porcupine is not going to be able to make one continuous stroke like seen in this pic. Some of these are a good 12 inches long.




I took the following pics this evening to demonstrate how only a couple of the incisors actually touch the tree when scraping. These teeth are slightly loose in the skull so they moved a little, which might not happen with a live bear and remember that the scrape patterns will change slightly depending on the age and size of the bear and shape of its teeth.

Top down


Top

 

Bottom up


Bottom

[grundy53]

I was wrong.  I like being proven wrong. It means I still have a lot to learn. I still wonder why there were porcupine quills at my peel... maybe secondary action? Thanks for the lesson.

sent from my typewriter

[billythekidrock]

I have found several trees with both bear and porky sign.

[pd]

Billy, thanks for the skull demonstration.  Let me ask you this: The vertical "bite marks" on that tree were made by a bear's upper jaw, scraping in a downward motion?  It looks like only 2 of the incisors actually made a mark.  Also, do you notice what look like bite marks on the sides of the vertical scrapes (look at the highest scrape, to the left and right, they don't penetrate to the lower layer)?  What did this?

Very informative.  Have we all agreed this was a bear's doing, not the handiwork of a porcupine?

[fullpipe77]

I was out road hunting and found a porki crossing the road. My friend said kill it!  Those things jack dogs up.  I was out again and found one. They are very slow. I had no desire to kill a dumb animal. sorry a bad pic but the only one I got