What kind of animal may have done this?
I was recently hiking around Finland with my girlfriend and we came across several trees that seem to have been had at by some sort of animal. I'm quite curious as to what it may be and any help would be appreciated. An image of such a tree (taken at Koivusuo luonnonpuisto) is below:
From what I could tell, the trees seemed to be had at for no particular reason (bugs etc) and no tree seemed to be partly done either. Any tree in such a state had it's bark "scraped" off from all around it, and up to approximately 15ft high on some as well.
I've looked online for some answers, though I think the closest I found was Elk or Squirrels. At first I even thought it might have been a lightning strike simply because I found a charred tree in the forest, but I think this to be unlikely given how many and how perfectly the bark surrounds the base of the trunk.
Thanks for any help on this! Been wondering for a few months and thought I'd finally ask for help :)
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Not sure about all the bark being stripped off, but the elongated holes look like the work of pileated woodpeckers.
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Almost certainly, this is the work of a woodpecker foraging for grubs in a dead and rotting tree: they tend to move methodically up the trunk excavating at intervals, producing the Swiss cheese effect visible in your photo. This being Finland, your culprit is probably the black woodpecker Dryocopus martius. For comparison, here's a stock photo entitled "Black woodpecker holes on a dead pine tree at a Nordic bog in spring":
This YouTube video shows a black woodpecker at work. Here's a still from it:
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